It’s refreshing when someone owns up to their mistakes, explains how and why they’ve revised a position and what led to that revision in the first place. I say this because that’s what Dr Alice Evans has just done in a post titled 3 Things I Got Wrong About Patriarchy. It’s refreshing because the dominant posture seems to be one of doubling down on a position no matter what. This just leads to an increasingly angry and polarized conversation. I’m not quite sure how I ended up reading her article it which is embarrassing because it was only a few days ago but it caught my eye and read it I did. I’d never heard of or read Dr Evans before and as it turns out, she’s a lecturer at King’s College London, a faculty associate at Harvard CID & something of an expert in the field of gender equality.

As Dr Evans reviews her thinking she realises that she’d completely misjudged the role and influence of religion, including Christianity, on her topic in all sorts of ways. All very interesting. What really grabbed my attention though was she didn’t just stop at what she had learned and revised her thinking on but she did a reasonable bit of self-examination asking herself the question, ‘Why was I repeatedly wrong about religion?’

Which is an excellent question, that more people should ask. Anyway, this is her answer:

Progressive group think is likely part of the explanation. When I studied International Development at the London School of Economics, no one even mentioned religion. Nor did my friends, family, or academic peers. The only time Islam really came up was in relation to discrimination post-9/11. We all loathed the lies and hate propagated by right-wing media. No one I knew and respected emphasised the enormous cultural influence of religion. I was in a secular bubble.

Ironically, my ignorance may have been exacerbated by my atheism, empiricism and nihilism. I did not fully appreciate the cognitive impact of faith, religious righteousness, and fear of eternal damnation. I was strongly biased against the proposition that people stopped marrying their cousins because they were instructed by the Church.

For two short paragraphs they’re packed full of learning points for the church in the West.

1. Religion has been quarantined as an irrelevant specialism. In the topic of international development no-one mentioned religion, ever it seems, as a relevant dimension to development. The same is likely true for many other branches of enquiry. Dr Evans was in a bubble but she didn’t realise it. We seldom do.
2. Religion for many is equated with right-wing propaganda. This automatic assumption reveals ignorance, polarisation and the enormous need for better communicators in the public square who can be a thorn in the flesh of the right AND the left in their articulation of the Gospel.
3. Media rarely covers religion positively. Lies & hate. We may or may not deserve that, I suspect most of think we don’t but that is the perception and there is precious little in the public sphere that might change that perception.
4. Religion was perceived solely as a negative. No one Dr Evans knew had a respect for the legacy, heritage and influence of religion. Not only did she evidently not know any believers but she didn’t even seem to know anyone with an appreciation. If you want evidence for how far the stock of Christianity has fallen in the UK then here is some.
5. Atheism is/ contains bias. I really respect Dr Evans for this. She realised she was biased because of her presuppositions and those presuppositions had, it turns out, led her astray in her research. None of this is about the truth or otherwise of Christianity or any other religion, but it is in some way a rejection or at least a revision of the notion that ‘Religion poisons everything‘

Dr Evans has had the courage to revise her positions based on the evidence. That’s not easy to do for anyone, Christians included or perhaps especially. It’s worth being aware of the bubbles we might find ourselves in and the distortion this can produce even on our best efforts at critical thinking.

But her honesty also shows the significant challenges Christianity faces in the West. It’s retreat has been long & deep, it’s disappearance from subjects, conversation, academia, media almost total and in it’s place a disdain and bias. Hopefully Dr Evans will not be alone in this revision of that while not returning Christianity to any position of preeminence, will allow for a more respectful and beneficial conversation.