Hope for High Conflict with Amanda Ripley

“Our church lived through the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections divided. Our church lived through Black Lives Matter protests divided. Our church lived through COVID divided. How are we going to get through 2024?”

That’s one of the questions that Russell Moore is asked on a regular basis, and it’s not an easy one to answer. Enter Amanda Ripley, author of High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. An investigative journalist and the co-founder of Good Conflict, Ripley has spent years exploring how humans engage in disagreements that threaten to tear people apart. 

On this episode, Moore and Ripley discuss the differences between regular conflict and high conflict. They consider examples of good and bad engagement with conflict, how polarization occurs in politics and religion, and the line between accountability and humiliation. They consider the role of media, institutions, and and family relationships in navigating divisions. And they consider how conflict can be harnessed to serve as a public good.

Tune in for a rich discussion of the things that seek to tear us apart but can be redeemed to bring us together.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley
• The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley 
• The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes —and Why by Amanda Ripley
• Good Conflict 
• Practical Tools from Good Conflict
• King Rat by China Miélville
• Chicago CRED
• Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America by Russell Moore
• Well-Intentioned Dragons: Ministering to Problem People in the Church by Marshall Shelley
• B’nai Jeshurun

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to questions@russellmoore.com.

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“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper

Host: Russell Moore

Producer: Ashley Hales

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and Azurae Phelps

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Audio engineering by Dan Phelps

Video producer: Abby Egan

Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

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