The perception gap is a term coined by political scientists and sociologists to describe a phenomenon that is driving political, cultural, and social polarization. This perception gap isn’t just concerned about gaps in our information about other people, it’s also concerned about how that gap is formed, and how this gap actually changes our beliefs and behavior. Generally speaking, the bigger this gap gets in our society, the more destructive effects it produces. The good news is that the perception gap can be closed, the church has a truly incredible opportunity to make an incredible impact in our country by modeling how Jesus Christ, and his Gospel, brings together people from every nation, background, and even political party and unites them under his leadership.

The perception gap is not just a gap in information we have in our brains; the perception gap is also a gap between what our hearts love as well. We function as though our beliefs guide our behavior, but in reality, our beliefs and the knowledge that we have is a rider trying to control a large elephant, and the elephant is driven by what we love. The first step to closing the perception gap is to recognize that we do not always love what we say we love, and that if we cannot see how what we love drives our beliefs and behavior, our efforts to close the perception gap in our lives and the lives of others could backfire and make the problem worse.

The first step to closing the perception gap is to close the gap between what we think and what we love. Once we are aware of the gap between what we think we love and what our hearts love, we are then able to help others see the gap between what they think and what they love, and to begin trying to speak to both the “elephant” and the “rider” of another person. However, in order to do that well, we must recognize our elephant’s fight-or-flight reaction when it comes to uncomfortable or difficult subjects or situations, and be willing to see our anxiety as an opportunity instead of making our anxiety going away through flight or fight. Understanding our own fight-or-flight reaction helps us understand the fight-or-flight reaction of others, and helps us know how we can best talk with other people as opposed to just talking at them.

In order to close the perception gap, we have to talk with the people in our lives, and not talk at them. We should start with the people that we share physical proximity and connection with, and work our way outwards from there, and let those around us shape our perception of our world more than random strangers on the Internet that we will never meet. By starting with what you value, you can build connection points with others for discussing politics and policy, and even if you do not share a particular value with someone else, there are likely related values that we can still find agreement on. The church has a unique opportunity to close the perception because the Gospel of Jesus Christ calls people from every tribe, nation, language, and tongue and unites them together under his leadership to be his ambassadors on earth. One of the most practical ways the church can serve the world is to be places where people with differences and disagreements can come together to worship Jesus as Lord.

Books, Articles, Organizations, and Substacks our faculty recommend on this topic.