This episode was recorded in early July, while it explores in part the broader dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,

it does not reflect or respond to the most recent developments in the region.

There's an emerging field of research about how our brains in some ways are not only wired to polarize, we are wired

to identify with tribal groupings.

There's evidence suggesting strongly that folks who are right or left leaning have

somewhat different brains, that folks who lean more conservative are more sensitive to threat.

And folks who are more liberal leaning are more stimulated by newness.

When you add that into our media environments, no wonder we feel like this, right? Right.

You know, Welcome to the Good Faith podcast. I'm your host, Curtis Chang.

And the Good Faith podcast is we're friends who follow Jesus,

help each other make sense of the world.

And by goodness, there is one part of the world right now

that feels almost impossible to make sense of.

And I'm talking about the Middle East,

especially what is happening in Gaza.

It is very tempting to give up entirely the effort to try

to make sense of all that complexity in the world, or to just adopt one side's narrative, which

kind of in a wholesale manner. But it may be worth our effort to more deeply understand what is happening there, not just

for its own sake, which is important, but in a way also because perhaps the Middle East

actually has something to teach us here in America something about what's happening

in our society.

Or at least that's the argument of

...