A Good Example of “The Big Shift”

I recently posted an outline and explanation of a helpful metaphor from Harderwyk’s Executive Pastor Dr Darwin Glassford that I called "The Big Shift."  CLICK HERE  It has helped me recognize that I am living and leading through change that happens around me on three “levels.”  Like the ocean, there are 1) Surface Storms, 2) Undersea Currents or Riptides and 3) Tectonic Shifts that cause change and turmoil, but in different ways.

Shortly after that post, I came across an article that exemplified the “Big Shift” metaphor for me.  The post is “The Difficulties of Teaching About Divorce in an Anecdotal World by Alexander Riley on ThePublicDiscourse.com.  It is well worth reading on its own.  CLICK HERE to do exactly that.  

In brief, Riley makes the case that social research is abundantly clear that the children of divorce experience an increase in negative life outcomes, even when controlling for other variables like income, education, location and others.  He finds it difficult to engage his students with this conclusion though not because the research is lacking, but because the students have been taught to “embrace the view that relativist, subjectivist and ultimately personal experiential knowledge is the only kind available to us.”  His students are thinking that “my story” or anecdote beats your scientific study of a larger population.  Push that thought further and we are talking about sacrificing scientific conclusions on the altar of personal experience.

Here is where the “Big Shift” ocean metaphor comes in:

• The impact of divorce on children is an issue on the level of a Surface Storm.
• The triumph of anecdote over science is an Undersea Current or riptide.
• My guess is that both of these are energized by a “Tectonic Shift” resulting from the “Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self” to borrow the title of Carl Trueman’s excellent book.

For me to have a conversation with someone about the impact on their children of the divorce they are considering, I will need to recognize the “my-anecdote-trumps-your-science” riptide that may be below the surface.  And this, not so much to “win the argument,” as to communicate a reality in a way this person will hear.