Beyond Divide: And the Tools That Get Us There

By Laurel Hughes

In these days of extreme differences of opinion, what ever happened to the WWJD test? Swamped by divisive culture, those who love God struggle to avoid sinking into polarized social norms. Yet during severe stress we are all susceptible to doing just that. So, too, do we suffer from the spiritual, emotional, interpersonal, and community consequences of missteps that follow.

Mercifully, our bodies are designed to excel at overcoming this brand of spiritual distress. New brain science findings are amazingly consistent with the faith lessons we’ve been taught all along. Beyond Divide and the Tools That Get Us There shares this overlapping wisdom, as well as how to use it to benefit ourselves, loved ones, and community alike. If we use the right tool for the right job, remedies for healing hijacked faith can be found right at our fingertips.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9781664294493

Laurel Hughes

Laurel Hughes, Psy.D. is a Christian psychologist with special interest in healing trauma. During her varied career she participated in over 50 disaster operations, ranging from major catastrophes such as The Events of September 11th to minor local flooding. Between deployments she wrote books, and developed numerous program and training materials for agencies and organizations that provide mental health services following disaster. In addition to Beyond Divide and the Tools That Get Us There, she authored The Cogjam Effect – and the Path to Healing Divisive Community and Fractured Science. She can be reached at www.thecogjameffect.com.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2023904324

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/24/2023

Contents

Acknowledgments

1     Beginnings

2     Life with the Stress Response

3     Under-Recognized Pitfalls

4     Tools of Discernment

5     Recognizing the Spiritual

6     Science and Intellect

7     Intellect and Accuracy

8     Human Bias

9     Cogjammed Community

10   Compassion

11   Taming the Lizard

12   Interpersonal Play

13   And Deliver Us from Cogjam

14   Finding Your Formula

Endnotes

Acknowledgments

Writing a book takes many days of hiding out in solitude. Beyond Divide was no exception. Special challenges—personal sagas I share on future pages—further slowed my progress. All the same, I’m thankful for the experience of this inspired personal walk. I feel blessed for the opportunity now to share what it showed me about the faith/science overlap and how that combined wisdom opens doors to healing both cogjammed faith and distressed community.

I thank my family and friends for their abundant patience and understanding as I blipped off the radar. I would also like to mention those who provided special encouragement: Rick Hanson, PhD, who first got me writing about cogjam; Don S. Otis, who helped me realize the need to explain cogjam to the faith audience; Mike Wilson and Bridie Cawthorne for useful early feedback; Josh McDowell for his generous time and expert guidance; and Jeannie and David Penney, dear friends, who were very willing to review early drafts.

www.thecogjameffect.com

1

BEGINNINGS

SHORTLY AFTER MY ALIGHTING ON A PATH OF FAITH, MY WALK DELIVERED me to a secular graduate psychology program. As might be expected, indoctrination into both fields at the same time made for no shortage of confusion and conflict.

Little did I know that one day, these seemingly opposing realms would join hands to bolster me as both a psychologist and a believer. Even farther out on my radar was the lightbulb realization that this unlikely union of traditional adversaries held answers for healing a grueling political divide.

Back in the sixties and seventies, science and religion were even more pigeonholed than they are today. Many who lived through those years likely remember how, at times, outright hostility reigned between the two. In spite of our having come a long way over the last half century, certain suspicions still run deep on both sides.

While I was still a novice in these two fields, viable mentors for my conflicted venture were few and far between. As a result, the educational voyage I’d signed up for at times left me treading water in stormy seas, trapped between colliding philosophical hurricanes.

COLLISIONS WITH SCIENCE

Back in the 1970s, I was standing in the cafeteria line with one of my anthropology professors. He had just returned from a major conference on state-of-the-art evolution research. Enthusiasm danced in his eyes as he shared nuggets of recently unearthed data. Apparently unaware of my background, he finished our conversation by saying, With everything we now know, I’d really like to hear how Christians can possibly believe in creationist stories.

Well, you happen to be looking at one. It was a bold move for my usually timid self. But at the moment I was stunned by the unanticipated joust, not to mention worn a little thin by the whole debate. Looking back, I guess I could have done without the sarcastic overtones. That was my gut brain getting into the act. We’ll be following that little guy’s exploits at length.

My embarrassed professor stood there in awkward silence, occasionally shuffling his feet. I began to feel sorry for his plight. Here he was with a foot in his mouth and no easy way to remove it, in front of a student no less. After all, his whole career centered on helping budding social scientists blossom into the next generation of experts, not ridiculing them or trampling their ideas.

That was the chemistry of compassion flowing in, something else future pages will cover. The result: my feeling of being under attack loosened its grip on the steering wheel. I shifted gears and began sharing objective observations, much as I would during an intellectual give-and-take with any colleague.

You know, you’re right. Scientific study goes to great lengths to explore the question of where we came from. There’s plenty of data out there for big conferences. But think about it: Pretty much all those modern scientific papers about early origins conclude that life emerged in about the same order that the book of Genesis already described. The concept has been around since before the Gutenberg press. Isn’t this a rather odd coincidence?

He still had no answer, perhaps a little stunned himself. But he did seem to be giving my ideas fair consideration.

I was on a roll. "And then, look at scientific method. We accept something as fact only after we can demonstrate it. Demonstration is the very hallmark of scientific method. Yet nobody has demonstrated advanced life emerging from nonlife. Sure, they’ve shown lots of tiny pieces that could conceivably fit in with the overall concept of evolution. But still, nobody has demonstrated life advancing from nothing. Based on how we do science, these pieces suggest only a possibility of how such a thing might have happened. For any other scientific study, with this level of evidence, we don’t call it fact or even theory. We call it a hypothesis that needs to be tested. Sometimes it only rates as conjecture."

My professor could hardly disagree with the basic tenets of scientific method. And I’d certainly taken the wind out of his sails regarding the conference he’d so enjoyed. Later on I felt a little guilty about that part.

All the same, the fact that this empirical pothole had never occurred to him illustrates how even scientists may give in to beliefs based on flimsy evidence if the trusted colleagues surrounding them treat those beliefs as fact.¹ In other words, in spite of my professor’s substantial training and experience in scientific method, he appeared to have gotten caught in the snare of groupthink—another human dilemma that weighs heavily in today’s red-versus-blue discord.

COLLISIONS WITH FAITH

My early experiences within the faith community were not much better. On one hand, a fundamentalist community is a great place for a new Christian to learn the ropes. Its doctrine sticks to, well, fundamentals. Its reductionist flavor makes for fewer gray areas, which smooths the path of learning. Fewer philosophical bumps mean less confusion.

Unfortunately, black-or-white designations, while benign or even appropriate when choosing personal religious practices, at times wander into arenas where they do not belong. And yes, you guessed it—we’ll also take a look at the role of misapplied faith in today’s confused political atmosphere.

I spent my earliest days of Christian community carefully tiptoeing around a line in the sand that had been drawn long before I arrived on the scene. Some believers went so far as to equate science with worldly ways or the work of the devil. Just try picking your way around that minefield, with gut brains ramping up their fear response to freeway speed.

In one respect I was in luck. My early training had taken place during an era when works on Christian psychology, Christian counseling, and the like were enjoying their first serious consideration in the publishing world. Misunderstandings about mental illness had long held reign in religious circles, with some errant beliefs lingering to this day. Back then we had not yet stumbled across today’s mainstream evidence that most mental illness, if not all, has specific biological roots. Therefore, within some faith communities, mental illness, addictions, or extreme emotions of any sort were commonly viewed as products of moral or spiritual failure, rather than health issues that needed tending to. The newly released Christian-oriented works helped bridge some of this gap in understanding.

As I soldiered on in my faith training, I volunteered to lead Bible studies, Sunday school classes, and presentations on topics related to social and emotional life. I was able to introduce more modern concepts about mental functioning, including how these concepts hold up from a biblical standpoint. Many believers were receptive.

But many others were not. No matter how many Bible stories portrayed the tearing of sackcloth and gnashing of teeth as common or expectable in certain circumstances, there remained those who simply would not let go of long-accepted alternative notions. In other words, even when their absolutist beliefs had little to do with scripture and other faith-based perspectives, their earlier belief choices mattered and facts didn’t—very much like what we see today in the red-versus-blue divide.

TIME MARCHES ON

In my social life, I ran up against this wall almost daily. Science and religion were habitually treated as opposites, no matter which collection of peers I conversed with. If you believed in one of them, you couldn’t possibly believe in the other. If you accepted any truths within the tenets of one realm, then it meant you were completely denying the other realm’s legitimacy.

A dependable pattern emerged: express an alternative view, and risk having people feel attacked. Gut brains respond accordingly. Skirmishes follow. Or facts no longer matter at all—scriptural, evidence-based, or otherwise. People’s minds are made up. Why even bother?

What in the world is going on here? I often pondered. Am I alone in this?

It didn’t make sense that intelligent people on both sides of that line in the sand so struggled to apply what, for me, seemed like common sense. A lot had to happen before I settled into a comfortable worldview for understanding science and faith and for living among those invested in dogmatic overreach.

Fast-forward to 2017. An ongoing battle of political extremes was stirred up to a fever pitch. The collective angst felt remarkably like the friction I’d experienced as a budding Christian and social scientist. Except this red-versus-blue battle was much more widespread. It was well on its way to tarnishing an entire nation. Furthermore, the rigid pigeonholing of favored beliefs seemed to be invading just about every aspect of life, not just politics. Great opportunities for intelligent discussion on any topic regularly withered on the vine. Social and emotional carnage piled up everywhere.

Over time, the warlike polarizing only worsened. By 2020, even the COVID-19 pandemic had become politicized. We successfully developed vaccines and medications to help contain the spread and consequences of infection, but there was no vaccine on the horizon to heal the dysfunction, divisiveness, and other mental health impacts of this sociopolitical pandemic; nor for the ill-advised hesitance to take vital measures to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities from the deadly virus. Somewhere there had to be answers for getting people off this far-reaching path to self-destruction.

Perhaps most disconcerting of all was what I observed within faith communities. In my optimism, I at first assumed that faith practitioners would race to the forefront to share teachings and practices that had the answers for understanding and healing the discord. Surely the faith communities would lead the way to healing this toxicity.

To my chagrin, I noted that believers were far from immune to jumping into the aimless fray. Many adopted even more polarized attitudes than did those in secular communities. I regularly watched devout believers treating others in ways that violated basic tenets of Christianity, teachings of kindness and caring so universal that pretty much all faith communities value them. Believers of many sorts have time-honored guidance manuals for compassionate and healthy living available at their fingertips. But with gut brains relentlessly tossing wrenches into the works, spiritual wisdom’s ability to provide guidance and comfort seemed stymied.²

Then there was the growing problem of guilt and self-blame. On some level, we all recognize when we’ve violated our personal guidelines for living. Self-judgment and other consequences follow. For some, the clash becomes a crisis of faith.

Yet there is more at stake than a hampered spirit. Over the last decade, research on the topic of moral injury has proliferated. This form of inner injury rides shotgun with unfortunate mental health outcomes ranging from simple confusion to depression, PTSD, and suicide.³ It can even impair physical resilience for combating the pandemic. Those who best weather the storm do so with solid social support systems and tight connections to spiritual meaning and purpose. Both these assets are easily disrupted by divisiveness and polarization.⁴ That’s exactly what we’re now living with: the unfortunate end products of collectively disrupted resilience.

Why the disconnect? What is it about this social situation that so easily blocks access to intellect, as well as to faith-based convictions that have held reign for many centuries?

FROM PONDERINGS TO PAGES

Recently, with the diverse threads of my life experience, I saw fit to weave a potential plan for healing. Thanks to my fascination with newly unfolding brain research, my decades of service in disaster mental health, and my having picked up a trick or two for dealing with severely opposing views, I became inspired to seek a strategy for soothing this red/blue divide. I published a book about my conclusions: The Cogjam Effect—and the Path to Healing Divisive Community and Fractured Science.⁵ In brief, the book explains how fear chemistry affects what we think and do, what we can do to better manage fear chemistry, and why this is so relevant in this time of extreme polarization.

This message had value for everyone, people of faith and nonbelievers alike. So I framed that particular work in a secular perspective. I left out mention of what faith teachings have to add to the equation. I knew that if I delved into religion or spirituality, then that other, aforementioned divide would surely rear its doubting head. A large proportion of the population would simply set the book aside, if they bothered to pick it up at all.

But I did not forget about my fellow believers. As I continued exploring evidence of gut brain–driven cognitive logjams—cogjam, as I eventually dubbed them—I came to the conclusion that I could no longer merely sit back and stew over the unique challenges this unfortunate cycle dumps on practitioners of faith. Something needed to be done.

So, just when I thought I was ready to move on to other retirement pursuits, here I am again. I’m inspired to pen an intimate adaption for those seeking a spiritual path through an abundantly cogjammed world. For what I learned all those years ago about extreme views is that it’s not about one particular way of gathering information’s being correct and the other’s being wrong. Nor is it about judging one method as good and the other as bad.

Using successful discernment in troubled times is about knowing how to choose and listen to the information source that most appropriately addresses the particular issue at hand. In other words, we must use the right tool for the right job. Discernment for remedying cogjammed faith embraces a full understanding of four critical concepts:

• Brain chemistry triggered during excessive stress biologically interferes with our ability to access intellect and spirit.

• When intellect and beliefs are partially blocked or out of reach, cogjammed faith and violated personal values move in.

• We can, however, adjust our inner focus and turn on alternative brain chemistry, which delivers the right tools for the job …

• … but only if we step up to the challenge: seriously examine our thought processes and reactions, take charge of certain inner chemistry, and systematically set ourselves up for better evidence-based and faith-guided living.

This we can do, no matter how pervasive the divisiveness that swirls in our midst. Who doesn’t want inner peace?

HOW THIS MATERIAL IS ORGANIZED

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

—2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV)

This story begins with an introduction to how our most primitive biological wiring can trip us up during severe stress, and how alternative inner resources can be brought to bear in times of critical decision-making. It looks at how cogjam affects us when we join together