In response to the election, Jason Weeden and Robert Kurzban published a rather amazing article in the op-ed pages of the New York Times . They began that article stating,
\n \u201cAs America completes another costly, polarized and exhausting election cycle, it\u2019s commonplace to characterize our society as being divided into warring tribes of liberals and conservatives. But this view oversimplifies the causes of our political differences. Most people aren\u2019t ideologically pure, and most don\u2019t derive their opinions from abstract ideologies and principles. People are more strongly influenced by the effects of policies on themselves, their families and their wider social networks. Their views, in short, are often based on self-interest. […] “A focus on self-interest helps explain why three-quarters of people who went to church as children don\u2019t attend church in their 20s. The young people most likely to abandon the church are those engaging in the kinds of lifestyles \u2014 involving alcohol, recreational drugs, premarital sex and nonmarital cohabitation \u2014 that religious conservatives condemn.\u201d
\nWeeden and Kurzban are pointing to something that every Christian leader, parent, or pastor must understand. On the one hand, we recognize that worldview determines behavior \u2014 what we believe is inevitably played out in our lives. But we must also recognize, as Weeden and Kurzban point out, that not only does our worldview determine behavior but the contrary is also true \u2013 our behavior often affects our worldview.<\/p>\n
The illustration used by Weeden and Kurzban is very instructive. Young people who are involved in premarital sex, non-marital cohabitation, and recreational drugs develop a worldview to justify their activities. Of course, this is what all sinners do. Sinners want to justify their sin and in order to accomplish this they try to realign their worldview in order to create moral justification for their behavior. Christians need to understand that Weeden and Kurzban are onto something real here; not only does worldview determine behavior but behavior can determine worldview.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Jason Weeden and Robert Kurzban, \u201cElection 2014: Your Very Predictable Vote,\u201d New York Times, Monday, November 3, 2014. < http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/11\/04\/opinion\/elections-2014-quick-takes-from-columnists-and-contributors.html?_r=0 ><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In response to the election, Jason Weeden and Robert Kurzban published a rather amazing article in the op-ed pages of the New York Times . They began that article stating, \u201cAs America completes another costly, polarized and exhausting election cycle, it\u2019s commonplace to characterize our society as being divided into warring tribes of liberals and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1233,582,802,772,2348,4314,940,4313,4312,25,731],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}