INTRO

In early August 2020, in the interest of gaining a better understanding of the polarized state of our nation, Pew Research Group polled supporters of both Presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, asking this question: Thinking about your close friends, how many would you say support Donald Trump for president or support Joe Biden for president?

Roughly four-in-ten registered voters in both camps say that they do not have a single close friend who supports the other major party candidate, and fewer than a quarter say they have more than a few friends who do.

Around six-in-ten Trump supporters (59%) say they have mostly friends who share their support for the president's reelection bid, while a slightly smaller share of Biden supporters (48%) say a lot of their close friends also back the former vice president in the election. Nearly nine-in-ten backers of both Trump (89%) and Biden (87%) say they have at least some close friends who support their candidate for president.

In both coalitions, older registered voters are more likely than younger voters to report having mostly friends who back their candidate.

In counties where Trump's margin over Clinton was 30 points or more, 71% of Trump supporters say a lot of their friends currently support the president, and nearly half (46%) say they have no close friends who back Biden. By comparison, in counties that Clinton won by a similarly wide margin, only 42% of Trump supporters say most of their friends back Trump and just 30% say none of their close friends support Biden.

The pattern is similar among Biden supporters: 57% of those who live in counties that Clinton won handily in 2016 say most of their close friends support Biden, while 53% say none of their close friends support Trump. But among Biden backers living in places that Trump overwhelmingly won in 2016, just 31% say most of their friends back Biden, and only 32% say they have no close Trump-supporting friends.

Sadly, the polarized state of our nation is not shocking. We feel the division. We hear it. We see it. We read it. And yet, most of us think, 'Not me.' Until we take a closer look and ask ourselves, 'Do I have friends who think differently than me?'

For many of us, our ideological differences and politics place stress on the relationships that matter most.

Personal Story: The other day, a friend in her late thirties told me she lied to her mother for the very first time since she was a teenager. She had decided to tell her mother she was voting for her mother's presidential candidate in the hope of filling the recent chasm that had sneakily developed over the past few months.

Therefore, in trying to restore peace in her relationship with her mother, she made the conscious decision to do something she never imagined she would do – lie about her vote.

Lying to her mother was incredibly upsetting to her for a plethora of reasons, but her sadness was that she felt their differing politics was destroying their relationship. What they had in common was being overshadowed and squelched out by their differences.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, few are exempt from having fueled our nation's division. As this poll states, we simply choose friends of the same political mind.

When we listen to podcasts, watch news shows, read newspapers, choose social media follows, and read articles that not only support our beliefs but affirm our 'rightness' in our beliefs, we should not be surprised by the outcome. By feeding our ideologies with like-mindedness, we have starved out a significant part of human connectedness – an unbiased relationship with all of God's people. Inevitably, our added 'rightness vs. wrongness' mindset has driven a wide wedge through God's crown of creation, leaving a deep ravine for divisiveness to dwell.

But what if we focused on the things that unite us as much as the things that divide us? ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium

But what if we focused on the things that unite us as much as the things that divide us?