We live in an increasingly partisan world. This is not news. But it’s the news “business,” in many ways, that has made it so.
Broadcasters on TV, radio, and the internet cast broad caricatures, distortions, and sensationalized half-truths to their followers–their insatiable fans who generally tune in or log on to hear confirmed what they already believe about this or that news story, this or that person in the spotlight.
Of course there’s no such thing as complete neutrality (in news or anything else)–we all see, hear, understand, and interpret from “somewhere.” But the hyper-partisanship of much of corporate media, whose ultimate (only?) goal is ever-higher ratings and revenues, has created a culture of suspicion and irratioal fear. Reasoned debate has been replaced by ridicule and contempt–sarcastic one-liners that seek a laugh while also trying to diminish the other’s humanity. Again, none of this is new(s).
Even among people of faith, partisan politics increasingly determines–and often destroys–associations and affiliations. Where “unconditional election” might once have severed the friendship of a die-hard Calvinist and a committed Methodist, now differences over health care or immigration–made intractable by the polarizing tutelage of Glenn Beck on one side and Keith Olbermann on the other–turn Catholic against Catholic, Baptist against Baptist, and on and on.
Calls for civility seem like a good idea in times like these. But civility, I fear, isn’t up to the task. Its other name–politeness–reminds us that it alone cannot bear the burden of what it’s asked to do in and for a deeply divided populace–either at the level of public debate or personal exchanges.
People who maintain long-term friendships with those whom they strenuously disagree with are usually possessed of a repertoire of skills and habits that make such relationships possible, that in fact govern their lives in their totality. They are innately curious about the world and other people– the kind of curiosity that is, as Marilyn Chandler McEntyre says, a form of compassion.
They are also truth-tellers. They recognize that genuine friendship is only possible when the parties involved refuse to lie to one another. This is why civility isn’t usually up to the job: to be civil or polite is often to avoid honesty; it is niceness without moral seriousness, tact without truth.
In his 2003 book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, Pulitzer prize-winning author, Tracy Kidder, tells the story of Dr. Paul Farmer, “the man who would cure the world.” Farmer is a Harvard-trained infectious diseases specialist who has devoted his life to treating the poor in places like Haiti, Peru, Russia, and Rwanda.
The surface biography of Farmer, who is increasingly well-known thanks to Kidder and to media coverage of Haiti’s recent earthquake, can make him seem saintly and noble; but Mountains Beyond Mountains, like any great biography, reveals the complexities of its subject—his maniacal ambition and his sheer goofiness; his inclination to moralize and his extraordinary capacity for forgiveness.
Farmer was a lapsed Catholic who encountered liberation theology as he began his work with the poor of Haiti. He’s not especially polite: “You want to talk crucifixion? I’ll show you crucifixion, you bastards.” He’s deeply curious about everything and everyone he meets. And he speaks the truth–even when it is inconvenient or embarrassing.
But what sums up Farmer’s approach to negotiating the difficulties of global health and the persons with whom he may have profound disagreements is something he calls the hermeneutic of generosity: interpreting what others say or intend in a favorable light. This is not naivete or wishful thinking; if one’s message or motives turn out to be not so honorable, truth-telling requires they be exposed.
The H of G (Farmer’s shorthand way to refer to this practice) names an interpretive stance–which presupposes (and sharpens) a range of skills and habits–that could go a long way in shaping arguments about health care or immigration or a host of other pressing issues.
TV’s talking heads have a stake in keeping us alienated from one another, as do many politicians who have learned from the media to trade in fear-mongering and melodrama. But their ways don’t have be mimicked. Moving beyond mere civility we can “read” our interlocutors generously not disdainfully, even as we seek always to know and speak the truth.
May 17, 2010 at 9:45 am
I mentioned in my sermon this Sunday that the reason the 11 persons who died on the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico received little attention is because both the right and the left agreed that their deaths were tragic. Since they agreed, these 11 lives were cast aside quickly in order for the bickering to resume. Who’s going to watch when both Beck and Olbermann sit side by side grieving over a common tragedy?
May 17, 2010 at 11:28 am
[…] this link: A Hermeneutic of Generosity « Intersections: Thoughts on Religion … Share and […]
May 17, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Thanks, Randy — that’s a great point.
May 18, 2010 at 12:27 am
touché
May 19, 2010 at 7:45 am
Excellent article. We are not teaching our children in public schools how to think critically anymore. It seems to me on the one side you have a partisan group which holds the faith to move the mountain, but lacks any desire to do so and on the other you have a group who passionately desires to move the mountain but has forgotten its source of power. Results make a person or a group “compassionate or humanitarian,” not rhetoric. In terms of results, neither political party has done anything in my lifetime except rearrange distribution of the wealth, creating different, not less “have-nots.”
May 20, 2010 at 12:55 pm
[…] A Hermeneutic of Generosity « Intersections: Thoughts on Religion, Culture, and Politics. Categories: Links Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Leave a comment […]
May 24, 2010 at 12:37 pm
[…] in a blog post titled “A Hermeneutic of Generosity,” Debra Dean Murphy spoke of the need for more than […]
May 26, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Ms. Murphy,
What are your thoughts on Jim Wallis as a spiritual leader for Mr. Obama?
April 16, 2012 at 11:18 am
[…] (I had to look it up, too) is a ten-cent word meaning interpretation. The phrase “hermeneutic of generosity” comes from the book Mountains Beyond Mountains, about Dr. Paul Farmer, who brought health […]
February 11, 2017 at 3:07 pm
[…] humility, faith in God’s care, and a “hermeneutic of generosity” (Paul Farmer’s phrase for interpretations that give others the benefit of the doubt). Writing about my shortcomings in […]