How are relationships affected when we identify powerfully with our viewpoints and our friends and family think differently?

We Will 2018 speaker Cristena Cleveland takes on this very issue with her timely book Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart.

Cleveland’s honest recollections, good humor and interesting research help to make this book much more than a suggestion that we all just get along.  She provides helpful insights about what makes it is so hard.  Essentially, she demonstrates that our group identities and biases boost our self-esteem.  When we defend our group identity to protect ourselves, we can easily wind up in hostile conflict or selected segregation. In this book, Cleveland provides suggestions on how to overcome our tendency to protect our viewpoints.  She doesn’t hide that this process may involve frustration and anger, but she shows that it’s worth it.

Cleveland’s personable and clear writing style help to make her research concepts clear and applicable in our real lives.  Her reflection questions at the end of each chapter make this book a smart choice for a discussion group.

I recommend reading this book and finding at least one other person to read it with, so you can process it more deeply!  And then come to We Will 2018 to hear her speak

More info about the conference here:  http://sawewill.org/

Disunity in Christ Chapter Titles

Right Christian, Wrong Christian

How Divisions Are Killing Us and Why We Should Care

Divisions Erected Out of Thin Air: How Categorizing Distorts How We See Each Other

Beyond Perceptions: How Categorizing Pollutes Our Interactions with Each Other

Running for Cover: How the Groups We Form Protect Our Identity and Self-Esteem

Waging Identity Wars: How Bias Boosts Our Self-Esteem

Culture Wars: How Cultural Threat Leads to Hostile Conflict

Blinded by Culture: How Our Culture Clouds Our Judgment

Creating Positive Cross-cultural Interactions

The Preeminence of (Identity in) Christ: How Things Can and Should Be