If you think \u201ccivility\u201d means behaving nicely in the public square, well, you\u2019re only half-right.<\/p>\n
Chuck Colson knew how to throw sharp elbows at his opponents back when he worked for the Nixon White House. But after his conversion to Christ, he quickly grasped the imperative to reach across the aisle to people of good will in order to get things done for the kingdom.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how Nixon\u2019s one-time \u201chatchet man\u201d became known as a champion of civility, of speaking gently and leaving the big stick at home. As he said, \u201cOne condition necessary for living together as a people is to treat one another with a certain level of respect … To attack people verbally or to threaten them with violence for their reasoned opinions runs counter to maintaining a healthy society. It makes rational discourse impossible. It\u2019s knocking at the door of barbarism.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Chuck also knew that barbarism overtakes a society not just because of the bad things that are done, but because of good things left undone. Civility means the building up of a civil culture, and it can\u2019t become a reality without intentionally doing the many small, positive acts too. Edmund Burke famously said \u201cTo be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle … of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed toward a love to our country and to mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, that sense of attachment is withering among many young people today, who are largely connected to rectangles instead, or more specifically, the small virtual communities of friends and family members. As a result, more than eight in ten don\u2019t trust other people or social institutions.<\/p>\n
Andrew Reiner, who teaches at Towson University, wants to help his students break out of these \u201chyperconnected cocoons.\u201d So he gave them two unusual class assignments: (1) Consciously commit civil acts over five days. (2) Have dinner with a stranger. Reiner said that these requirements downright scared and offended some of his young scholars.<\/p>\n
As he wrote in the Washington Post, \u201cThis is a generation terrified of looking up from the cellphone for fear of appearing out of the loop or having a real conversation where the muck of real emotions can\u2019t be sterilized. If they continue to hide in fiber-optic fortresses, how will they ever build real community with strangers?\u201d<\/p>\n
How high are the walls of these fiber-optic fortresses? Reiner notes that 30 percent of millennials are on the Web up to 18 hours a day. And he quotes a 2009 Pew study which reports that \u201cusers of social networking services are 30 percent less likely to know at least some of their neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
So how did Reiner\u2019s students do? Well, it\u2019s complicated! One encouraged a complete stranger who was having a roommate problem. Another gave out \u201cfree hugs\u201d but was surprised at how few people actually wanted them. Many students just simply resented the assignments. Some even said Reiner was crazy. One verbalized what so many were unwilling to say about why they were holding back: \u201cHonestly? We\u2019re just terrified of being rejected and looking uncool,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Reiner offers an example of what building community and civility should look like: the late Fred Rogers, of \u201cMr. Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood.\u201d Rogers said that a commitment to building community is an act of heroism. \u201cWe live in a world in which it\u2019s easy to say, \u2018It\u2019s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem\u2019 \u201c he said. But \u201cthen there are those who see the need and respond. Those people are my heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n
What would you do if you were sitting in Professor Reiner\u2019s class? What \u201crandom acts of civility\u201d would you commit? Are we stuck in our own fiber-optic fortresses?<\/p>\n
We know now, thanks to research from Byron Johnson and others, that prison inmates who are engaged in Bible studies and religious services are less likely to get in trouble when they get out. These activities take volunteers \u2014 like you and me.<\/p>\n
Or how about looking after the elderly neighbor across the street? Maybe the stay-at-home mom next door could use a babysitter every now and again. The possibilities to practice well-rounded civility are nearly endless.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2014 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you think \u201ccivility\u201d means behaving nicely in the public square, well, you\u2019re only half-right. Chuck Colson knew how to throw sharp elbows at his opponents back when he worked for the Nixon White House. But after his conversion to Christ, he quickly grasped the imperative to reach across the aisle to people of good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1750,76,4836,477,4780,4407,55,4837],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5514"}],"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=5514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}