With malice toward none
New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., hosts a discussion on civility featuring thoughtful voices on both sides
LOUISVILLE — Seated last week in the sanctuary of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, where Abraham Lincoln used to worship during the most trying time in American history, a conservative and a progressive joined for a conversation on what “with malice toward none,” a soaring phrase in Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, might mean in today’s fraught political setting.
Dr. Tim Shriver, a film producer, the chairman of the board of Special Olympics and the co-creator of The Dignity Index, and Judge Tom Griffith, a retired federal judge who was previously general counsel of Brigham Young University, talked about the spiritual and moral values needed to combat today’s toxic political polarization. Dr. David McAllister-Wilson, president of Wesley Theological Seminary, moderated their 97-minute discussion, which can be viewed here.
Asked to talk about their faith, Shriver said it’s his conviction “we are all children of God, and we have a lot of evidence to that effect.”
“The problem of missing the dignity of other human beings is a fundamental human problem,” Shriver said. “Every time we miss it, we make a huge mistake. That’s where my faith starts — around the equality of every human being.”
Griffith said despite devoting much of his life to jurisprudence, the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law are “not my primary allegiance.”
“I am in awe to be in this space,” he said, adding that before the discussion started, he’d sat in Lincoln’s pew and taken a video to send to his grandchildren. “This church has been at the forefront of fighting for human dignity, and to be here with these people I love and admire — I’m grateful to be here.”
“I have faith in the Constitution, but primarily I am a Christian and I practice my Christianity as a Latter-Day Saint,” Griffith said. “The biblical story is Christ is going to win. It will look dark at times, but he is going to win. Any effort we make to follow him and copy him is worthwhile and valuable and important.”
Asked about the surge in political violence over the past few years, Shriver assigned part of the blame to what he called the “contempt industrial complex.”
“Partisan journalism is super profitable,” he said. “You’ve probably seen 3-5 examples of hateful rhetoric today. The toxin normalizes and rewards hatred.”
“Political violence has been with us forever, but there’s something different about this moment. Political scientists call it ‘affective polarization,’ and we’ve never seen it at the levels where it is now,” Griffith said. “Democrats and Republicans should disagree, but they now feel the other side is immoral.” Our political system “can’t work with that level of contempt,” he said.
When he speaks on college campuses and at law schools, Griffith pleads with students to stay off social media. He tells them, “You are being played, and it’s dollar-driven.”
“This is the opioid crisis of our time,” Griffith said. “It puts the level of enmity on steroids.”
McAllister-Wilson pointed out that polling shows that religion is often a driver of polarization and even political violence. He asked: What do people of faith do with their sense of righteous anger?
“Act on it without becoming the evil you oppose,” Shriver said. “Differences of opinion are not the problem; they are the solution to problems. It’s the whole purpose of a vote. That’s how we solve problems.”
In his Second Inaugural Address, delivered March 4, 1865, Lincoln was addressing, in part, “slaveholders in the South who tried to destroy the United States of America,” Griffith noted. “How do you do that? I don’t know, but that’s what we’re called to do.”
A fan of C.S. Lewis, Griffith was at Oxford University recently. “I always go to University Church, where Lewis delivered his ‘The Weight of Glory’ sermon,” Griffith said. Lewis ends his sermon with these words: “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
“I think that’s right,” Griffith said. “The people we disagree with who are so wrong — we need to treat them with dignity and respect.”
Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address — which reminded hearers in the South that “we are not enemies, but friends” and included Lincoln’s “the better angels of our nature” reference — “fell on deaf ears, and we are all living with the consequences today,” Griffith said. “The country was defined by the conflict of the Civil War.”
Keeping dignity front and center
Shriver said The Dignity Index “was an attempt to go from the idea of giving platitudinous advice to people.”
“It grades how you treat another human being,” he said. He suggested that those gathered in the sanctuary and online “score yourself on the last time you talked politics” with someone on the other side of an issue.
“These are skills you could teach members of Congress,” he said, “if they would listen.”
Griffith called himself “a big fan of The Dignity Index” and called it “a powerful tool for self-regulation. I hope people will say, ‘I like her tax policies, but does she have to be so nasty about her [political] opponent?’”
Griffith asked those in attendance to “find a [Make America Great Again] person and take them to lunch. Pay for it, and at the lunch, just ask questions and listen to why that person feels the way they do. My theory for why MAGA is so powerful is that when people are humiliated, they don’t respond well.”
Griffith cited Judge Learned Hand’s 1944 speech, “The Spirit of Liberty,” where Hand calls the spirit of liberty “the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.” It is, according to Hand, “the spirit of Him who, near 2,000 years ago, taught [human]kind that lesson it has never learned but never quite forgotten: that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.”
Shriver and Griffith were asked: what gives you cause for hope?
“That this is still a country of enormous innovation and compassion,” Shriver said, adding that Special Olympics relies on a half-million volunteers to hold events across the nation.
“I am hopeful because on Easter Sunday, something miraculous happened,” Griffith said. “Christ began a new Creation he calls us to be part of.”
“When we are seeking reconciliation,” Griffith said, “he’s with us.”
During a question-and-answer time, the two were asked, “what do we do if something really evil is being done?”
“You attack programs, policies, outcomes and positions, but not the person,” Shriver said.
“Lincoln said the only way you persuade people to change their mind is to be their friend,” Griffith said.
New York Avenue Presbyterian Church offers its McClendon Scholars program both in person and online. Learn more here. As part of last week’s discussion with Griffith and Shriver, organizers offered this “Invitation to Action” guide.
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