My wife and I recently finished watching The Office. In season eight, a new CEO named Robert California draws a diagram dividing employees into two columns and leaves the notebook open where everyone can see it. This single action creates chaos. Factions form. People differ over how to interpret the columns. Jim Halpert even calls the diagram a mental Rorschach test because everyone projects their professional insecurities onto it.

While this example is fictional, it illustrates a real problem in Western culture. American political polarization has reached a thirty-year high. Major headlines tend to deepen the chasm between opposing political tribes. This broader societal division has even splintered the church.

Our cultural dilemma gives Christians a unique opportunity to display Christ’s love. While polarization has fractured society, we can pursue reconciliation by being an embodied community that orients people around the kingdom of God instead of partisan idols.