David French, columnist for The New York Times and bestselling author, spoke to BYU students and employees in this week’s forum address at the BYU Marriott Center. He invited the audience to build unity with people they disagree with through friendship, connection and love.
Sadly, an epidemic of hatred runs deep through the United States, French acknowledged. People from different viewpoints and political parties detest each other.
This division between groups of people leads to the law of polarization, which teaches that people of like minds gather. And the viewpoints of a group tend to lead to more extreme views than any one person in that group would have on their own.
Today’s culture of political disagreement is just a symptom of a bigger disease, he observed. A lack of connection is the larger issue. Americans are spending less and less time with one another; they’re not part of civic associations, churches, sports leagues, etc.
“As we become walled off from each other, we begin to disassociate from each other. We aren’t part of doing things together and that has a consequence,” French explained.
A lack of connection leads to three results: loneliness, political radicalization and economic stagnation.
French extended the invitation to “replace alienation and loneliness with connection and love.”
He shared a story of working with someone who had very different political views and came from a different social background. Even though the two disagreed on many things, they became close friends. His example illustrated the deep and profound friendship that can take place even while holding opposing beliefs.
French recommended getting to know those we disagree with and to see them as real people who just have a different opinion on some things.
“What community of people is better equipped to offer unconditional love to their neighbors than followers of Jesus Christ?” he asked.
French said the most concrete thing an American can do to help heal political divides is to “extend yourself personally to another human being, become a friend, to love your neighbor and allow others to feel a sense of belonging.”
