From “The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action” by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson
When you’re riveted to rational certainty as the way to ground your understanding of God, solidifying security about your actions and your life’s purpose, you gravitate toward binary thinking. THat means viewing life through a lens that differentiates clear either/or categories. This is true, so that is false. This is good, so that is evil. This is right, so that is wrong. And that binary thinking extends to perceptions of the world. This is spiritual, and that is material. This is objective, and that is subjective. This is reality, and that is illusion. Your brain is programmed in Western culture to think in this manner. It’s how you make sense out of things, and how you make choices. To speak philosophically, this means seeing reality and history through a dialectic of opposing forces.
Binary thinking plays a useful role in your life. Literally, it moves you beyond doubt and preserves a sanctuary of rational certainty. Those who are activists, leaders, effective managers – those who really want to see things get done – will be attracted to binary thinking. In social and political life you will drive momentum for change by articulating what is right and what is wrong, which is the correct path forward and which is the mistaken one.
Yet that leads to also dividing people into binary categories. If you’re narcissistic, you will quickly decide who is with you and who is against you. Your evaluation of others, and your personal relationships, can easily get driven by who is part of the tribe working for the changes you feel are imperative, and who is opposed. It’s us and them. Of course, our political culture and our siloed news media thrive on constant binary thinking.
Your experience of God and your life as a follower of Jesus gets shrunk and calcified when you’re dependent on the rational certainty provided by such a framework. Wonder and mystery evaporate. Discernment gets blocked. Spiritual exploration is quashed. You’ll find, I believe, that the active presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, and your perception of the Spirit’s work in the world, are seriously inhibited by the predictable certainty afforded by binary thinking.