CMM

I wanted to lay out some of the key points of common ground that I think all of us share as followers of Christ, whether we lean towards conservative/literal interpretation of the Bible or a liberal/metaphoric interpretation. I believe that these common points are also foundational components of progressive politics. I don't intend to unpack each of these extensively here, but rather I want to put them on the table for discussion and for everyone's consideration.

1. Reciprocity as derived from the Golden Rule and the command to love our neighbors. The idea of reciprocity is a foundational principle for most secular formulations of liberalism. Jesus says of the command to do unto others as we would have them do to us, "...this sums up the law and the prophets" Mt 7:12. It is a command that directly dictates the manner in which we are to relate to others. The laws that we support and advocate through our political involvement effect our neighbors and so this command is perhaps the most relevant in the Bible to the way in which we ought to formulate our political agendas.

Although the relevance here may not at first be apparent, I think that the issue of how we communicate has profound impact on the way that our message will be received and understood. Having said that, I also want to say that I believe that the majority of the posts here on CrossLeft already conform to the standards and principles I’m planning to lay out in this blog post. Even so, a deeper understanding of the mechanics and meta-level underpinnings of communication, meaning and understanding can only increase our effectiveness.

One more disclaimer. I’m not an expert on communication theory. I’ve done some limited reading on the subject and have found it profoundly interesting and useful. Most of my reading on the subject has been on the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) theory proposed by Pearce and Cronen in the 70s and 80s. This is a large and complex theory. I am not qualified to give it proper treatment, but I would like to unpack a few of the key concepts that have altered my own approach to writing and communications in general.