Persuasion requires more than ‘Because God said so’

The fall of 1984 was the school year Mrs. Riggins became my English teacher. She was a Yankee lady from Boston with short hair, and she meant business. Our collective “gifted” English class was put on notice day one that good enough wasn’t good enough. 

Our schools were supposed to be the best in the state at the time, but our test scores were mediocre. She wanted us on par with the best in the country, not above average for a state which lagged the nation. 

She made us work, she made us think, and more importantly, she made us express our ideas regularly with papers and persuasive essays. She had rules. I can’t recall most of them specifically, save one: Do not include the argument “because God said so.” That’s just the kind of thing a godless humanist would say to a group of Bible Belt kids. 

Any resistance to her methods were worn down by her skill and will. She was an awesome teacher. She left a lifelong impression – so much so that I often worry that she’ll one day send a clip of a column I’ve written marked up with red pen and a note that says “try harder” or “do better.” 

Our class was reluctant to have her at the beginning of tenth grade, yet was ecstatic when we learned she was keeping us for another year. Over that time period my skills and standardized test scores showed remarkable improvement. 

I remain transfixed on that one rule, especially in light of recent events. My church education and upbringing was Methodist, in which the “methods” are reinforced than more public/evangelical practices. 

Even writing about faith remains difficult, even though it shouldn’t be. Mixing faith with politics has always been something even more difficult, probably because so much of my party has become entwined with a political evangelical movement since my earliest days of pollical participation. 

I have written before that I used to be afraid that some of the more unsavory charlatans in the movement were using religion to cheapen the values of my party. More recently I came to the conclusion that it was the opposite. It was my religious belief system that was actually being debased. 

I do not wish to stand on judgment day and get asked if my politics turned more people away from God than brought them to him. In short, my political arguments do not rely on “because God says so.” 

Charlie Kirk built an amazing organization which heavily combines Christian orthodoxy with Republican/MAGA organization and infrastructure. As I said in a prior piece, I had paid little attention to him or Turning Point until very recently. After his assassination, I found myself watching clip after clip of him, and appreciating his approach more and more.

It was a clip of him on a college campus, retweeted by UGA great and former ESPN host David Pollack, which landed in my gut. It begins with Kirk asking the crowd to “be respectful” as a student with green hair wearing tie die takes the microphone and asks him to confirm he is “very religious”. He responds that he is, but “every one of my political positions is defensible from a non-religious perspective.” 

There’s a bit of a back and forth, with the student who had wanted to make the point that he wanted to make laws “based on the Bible,” and thus unconstitutional. He continues with “I am not using scripture to defend my beliefs…the political views that we’re talking about here are defensible using reason and western tradition.”

There was a bit more after the student, Archer, decided that the question was no longer relevant. Kirk then thanks Archer for the question, complements the courage that it took to appear in front of a crowd with mostly different views, and most importantly, said he would continue to pray, and hoped the church could earn back the student’s support.

He didn’t argue he was right “because God said so.” His career and message was one of debate with an appeal to reason and logic.  He earnestly sought to persuade where others have chosen to decree.  He was comfortable making these arguments with those who mostly agreed or mostly disagreed. His community had no litmus tests.

Back in the community where I grew up, my little country church used to have a tradition for a Sunday before Thanksgiving service. All of the area churches were invited to one church regardless of denomination. One year my church hosted, the pastor was from a Baptist church, and the Choir was from the Methodist church in town.

Imagine my surprise when that short haired English teacher from Boston led her choir into our church, then directed some beautiful music for all of our neighbors of (slightly) differing beliefs.

I learned a lot from Mrs. Riggins, and am re-learning some from Charlie Kirk. If you want to change someone’s mind, don’t tell them “because God said so.”

Convince them. Or, better yet, show them.