Can you think of a single issue—political, cultural, religious, or anything—that is uniting Americans more than it is dividing them? David French joins Matt, Derek, and Alastair to discuss the nature, causes, and responses to our current extreme polarization. David French’s new book on this very topic is Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.
Mere Fidelity is sponsored by The Davenant Institute.
Seeking to retrieve the riches of Classical Protestantism and to renew and rebuild the contemporary church, the Davenant Institute provides two graduate-level degree programs in Classical Protestantism through Davenant Hall. Mere Fidelity’s own Alastair Roberts will be teaching a course on Exodus and the Shape of Biblical Narrative with Davenant Hall.
Use the code MF20 to receive a 20% discount when you register for Davenant Hall courses before December 28th.
Mere Fidelity is also sponsored by Lexham Press, and features the Lexham Press Book of the Month.
For the month of December, our listeners will get a 25% discount on their purchase of Christ Our Salvation: Expositions & Proclamations, by John Webster, edited by Daniel Bush. Christ Our Salvation is an edifying and spiritually enriching collection of sermons by the renowned John Webster.
Be sure to apply the 25% discount to your purchase with the promo code MEREFIDELITYDEC as you checkout.
Timestamps:
December Promos [0:00]
The Many Takes of David French [1:12]
Divided We Fall [2:45]
“Sometimes realism is bleak.” | What is negative polarization? [3:59]
How does social media unite or divide us? | Nut-picking Described [9:14]
Violence and Media Reporting [15:36]
The systems are sound; the people are not. [21:04]
Giving social media its proper blame [24:18]
Does winning looks like domination or accomodation? [30:06]
Defending the Possibility of Martyrdom [43:04]
Trump’s Antibodies to Weaponized Civility [50:16]
Festivus Traditions [57:22]
Credits:
To support Mere Fidelity financially, visit our Patreon here.
Follow Derek, Andrew, and Alastair for more tweet-sized brilliance. Thanks to Timothy Crouch for keeping us organized. Thanks to Tim Motte for his sound editing. And thanks to The Joy Eternal for lending us their music, which everybody should download out of gratitude for their kindness.
Matthew Lee Anderson
Matthew Lee Anderson is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Theology in Baylor University's Honors College. He has a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics from Oxford University, and is a Perpetual Member of Biola University's Torrey Honors College. In 2005, he founded Mere Orthodoxy.
