Deep Canvassing and Difficult People

As I (Brenna) chatted with other City Church friends about this past Sunday’s sermon on how we love difficult people, one theme that came up is how hard it is to listen to people well when we disagree with them. How easily we shift into reaction and argument, trying to change their minds.

But psychologists and political activists have been suggesting there is a much healthier, more compassionate and more effective way for us to engage, that they call Deep Canvassing. Listen to this description from a 2020 article in the Boston Globe:

“… deep canvassing, pioneered by the Leadership Lab, a project of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, is different. The conversations are lengthy — maybe 10 or 15 minutes. They are non-judgmental. And they harness the power of personal narrative, which, psychological research suggests, is more effective than argumentation.

Some of the earliest efforts focused on gay marriage, with canvassers sharing their own experiences — or those of a friend — and asking people at their doorsteps to reflect on their own marriages.

“It’s a very human experience,” says Ash Overton, who was involved in a 2012 campaign to defeat a measure that would have banned gay marriage in Minnesota. “I had people say to me, ‘I’m going to vote “no” now and I will think about you when I do that,’ or, ‘I’ll never forget this conversation, and I’m sorry.’”

In a 2016 paper published in Science, Joshua Kalla and David Broockman, now political scientists at Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley, found a deep canvassing campaign in South Florida reduced transphobia in a lasting way.

That’s no small thing. People are highly resistant to changing their minds. And academics have found that other persuasion strategies have shown effects that persist for only a few days or require intense intervention over months or years.”

Deep Canvassing sounds a lot like curiosity and compassion. Listening to stories, patiently, compassionately, without judgment. Sharing ours or those of our friends, vulnerably. Not easy and not quick. But powerful. Kind.

James the brother of Jesus put it this way: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…”

As you process these things with Jesus, what do you sense rising up within you?