The American church at a crossroads: Will politics divide or unity prevail? | Opinion
In recent months, I’ve sensed a deepening fracture in the American church — one that seems to widen with every political tremor. The recent killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has intensified that divide. For many on the political right, his death has become a rallying point and a symbol of resolve. Yet, among Christians on the left, I’ve witnessed a rising resistance — a reaction to what they see as a politicized form of faith.
Rather than bringing people together, the event has revealed just how fragile our unity has become.
I write this as a white, politically conservative Christian and professor of biblical studies and culture at the graduate level. I believe deeply in the promise of reconciliation. Yet, as I look at our current climate, I fear that faith and nationalism are becoming intertwined in ways that threaten to redefine what it means to follow Jesus.
Too often, we have traded the humility of the gospel for the triumphalism of political power.
Over the past several years, I’ve embarked on what I call my “100 Conversations” journey: a deliberate effort to sit down and truly listen to people whose stories, backgrounds and convictions differ sharply from my own. I’ve met with Christians and non-Christians, Republicans and Democrats, Black Americans and people of color, pastors and activists, conservatives who feel unheard and progressives who feel alienated from the church.
What I’ve learned through those conversations has been transformative: Listening has changed not just my opinions, but my inner wiring. It has expanded my empathy, reshaping assumptions and creating what neuroscientists call neuroplasticity — new pathways for understanding. I’ve discovered that real listening isn’t passive; it’s an act of love — and even resistance — in a culture that rewards outrage.
Much of our current tension comes from what I’d call a confusion of loyalties. For many, Christianity has become a form of tribal identity rather than a source of shared moral imagination. When faith becomes fused with political ideology — on either side of the political aisle — we risk losing the very center that once held us together.
I’ve sat in classrooms and church circles where sincere believers, though equally sincere, are seen as inhabiting separate worlds. One student told me recently, “I just don’t understand how a real Christian could vote that way.” I’ve heard that exact sentence from both conservatives and progressives. Each side is convinced the other has lost its moral compass.
That is the heartbreak of our moment: when conviction eclipses compassion and truth becomes branded by ideology rather than anchored in shared humanity.
The challenge before the American church — and, in many ways, before the moral rethinking of our entire nation — is whether we can rediscover the power of listening as a civic and spiritual discipline. Unity does not mean uniformity, and disagreement need not devolve into contempt. What it requires is the humility to hear one another’s stories without immediately preparing a rebuttal.
Through my “100 Conversations,” I’ve become convinced that the work of reconciliation begins not in winning arguments, but in building relationships. The most transformative encounters didn’t happen when someone changed my mind, but when they changed my heart — allowing me to see the world through their eyes.
The American church now stands at a crossroads. One path leads to greater polarization, where faith communities mirror the hostilities of the broader culture. The other leads to a different kind of strength: the courage to listen, to learn and to love across difference.
We can continue to shout from our ideological bunkers, or we can sit at the table with those who see the world differently. The first option feels easier; the second is the only one that can heal us.
If we choose the path of listening, we may rediscover something essential not only to faith, but to democracy itself: that empathy is not weakness, and humility is not about compromise. They are the very foundations of authentic community.
Mark Dahlin is the department chair of Undergraduate Biblical Studies at Epic Bible College and Graduate School and adjunct faculty in the Graduate School of Leadership & Culture at The King’s University.