Life Outside the Echo Chamber: Opening Your Mind Without Losing Your Faith
Life outside the echo chamber is not an end goal but an ongoing process. It requires open-mindedness, intellectual humility, and a commitment to seeking diverse perspectives and information.
I changed the title of my Substack to "Life Outside the Echo Chamber” with a working subtitle of “Opening Your Mind Without Losing Your Faith.” This will better reflect the themes of the content I’ve been posting and the many draft posts I’m working on. (See recent posts: Why So Many Exvangelicals? and Deconstructing My Deconstruction.)
What is an Echo Chamber?
An echo chamber is an environment created by various experiences. Closed communities spawn and maintain echo chambers but so do social media algorithms and the personal choices people make to expose themselves only to information that aligns with their existing beliefs, values, or preferences.
"Life Outside the Echo Chamber” refers to the idea of living outside of those closed systems, being aware of algorithmic influence, and exposing oneself to a wide variety of ideas and opinions beyond your own ideological or social bubble. And all of this while ensuring that any sheltering that happens is beneficial and not detrimental.
Seven Pursuits
The following seven attributes describe someone who wants to live outside the echo chamber. While I am an Evangelical, I believe that each of these seven pursuits has helped me stay outside the Evangelical echo chamber and led me to gain a wider and, I believe, more well-rounded perspective. I’ll say more about each of these in future posts.
Diverse Media Consumption
I regularly seek out diverse opinions from both reputable (and sometimes even disreputable) sources that are from different ideological leanings. I read articles, listen to podcasts, and watch movies/videos from different perspectives so that I can understand different viewpoints on important issues. I avoid most of the media that is made for and marketed to Christians because it is almost always issued by the same studio: Echo Chamber Productions. (I jest, and yet…)
Engage in Civil Discussions
I have always enjoyed engaging in conversations with people of diverse opinions. I have found that these conversations have broadened my understanding of a wide range of issues and this has often challenged my existing assumptions. I haven’t always conducted myself well in these conversations. I’ve had to learn to listen well and to ask provocative questions that don’t come off as attacks.
Question Your Biases
Questioning my biases and beliefs is something I do constantly. I want to know where my perspective is limited and incomplete. Actively seeking out alternative viewpoints and critically evaluating information is not optional for me. Good conclusions are important because actions grow out of these conclusions.
Explore Different Communities
I want my social circle to include people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and ideologies. It is important to me to be involved in groups or organizations where I can exchange ideas with people with different perspectives from mine.
Travel and Experience New Cultures
Travel has been huge for me. My first major international trip was to China in 2006. Since then I have been to Mexico, Bolivia, Belize, Australia, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and I hope to travel to Europe and India in the next couple of years. Add to that all the beautiful places we’ve been to in Canada - East Coast to West Coast.
Everywhere I go, I want to learn about the culture, it’s language and customs and people. This provides valuable insights into different ways of life, beliefs, and values which have challenged my preconceptions and broadened my worldview.
Continuous Learning
I certainly embrace a mindset of lifelong continuous learning and intellectual curiosity. Continuous learning is not optional for me; it is more like an obsession. How much of that is natural inclination and how much is intentional pursuit is a bit of a mystery to me. I’m sure it’s a bit of both. I love to read books, take courses, attend lectures, and explore topics outside my comfort zone. This helps me gain a broader understanding of various subjects and challenges my existing assumptions.
Critical Thinking
This one is more a result of the pursuit than a pursuit itself because all of the above cannot lead anywhere except to the development of critical thinking skills. These skills must be developed in order to have any chance to evaluate information objectively. Learning to separate fact from opinion is a skill that comes with much practice. Both facts and opinions are of value, but you must be able to determine which is which.
An Ongoing Process
Life outside the echo chamber is not an end goal but an ongoing process. It requires open-mindedness, intellectual humility, and a commitment to seeking diverse perspectives and information.
I am beginning to have a much deeper sense of self-understanding (IOW “what makes me tick”) and this is opening some fruitful veins of reflection. And here is something that is a bit of a mystery to me: despite all of what I’ve written in this article, I am still what most would describe as a Conservative Evangelical and this strikes me as odd because it seems to me that for most people who embrace the above seven pursuits, that’s not the case.
Maybe it's that the earlier the seven above pursuits take root, the less chance there is of a major correction or deconstruction in later years. From what I’ve observed, deconstruction is often the result of people experiencing life outside the echo chamber for the first time as unprepared adults. Quite suddenly, they are exposed to the breadth of ideas in the world and this shocks them into a state of wonder and, often, distress.
Be In The World…
But why should this be so? Perhaps it is because many Christians strive to be both out of the world and not of the world. The latter is good, the former is not. Granted, it is not always easy to discern when we are becoming “of the world” but it also seems that many Christians and Christian leaders aren’t even trying to be in the world, preferring instead the much easier life inside the echo chamber.
This will not do. I suspect, for example, that we would have far fewer Exvangelicals if church leaders wisely embraced, were shaped by, and taught others to wisely embrace the above seven pursuits as good and necessary pursuits in the discipleship journey.
This is what I’m trying to do with the people in the church I lead and anywhere else I am a leader or have influence. I don’t have it all figured out but I think I’m making progress.
Would you care to join me?
P.S. “Life Outside the Echo Chamber: Opening Your Mind Without Losing Your Faith” sounds like a decent book title, doesn’t it? Maybe all this writing will lead to chapters for such a book. :-)
Below is a QR code to a WhatsApp group that you can join. Via this group, I will send links to my posts and you will also have an opportunity to send comments or messages or questions to me directly. To get started, simply click the graphic or scan the QR code below.
I wholeheartedly agree