Time to Stop the Experiment
The Stanford Prison Experiment was a 1971 study at Stanford University where 24 psychologically stable male college students were selected from a larger pool and randomly assigned to be guards or prisoners in a mock prison set up in the basement of Stanford’s psychology building. The psychologist Philip Zimbardo aimed to explore how situational factors affect behavior.
However, the experiment was stopped after only six days due to the guards’ increasingly abusive, even sadistic, behavior and the prisoners’ severe emotional distress and submissiveness. Questions have been raised since then about Zimbardo’s methods and conclusions, but the experiment remains a testament to how any of us can situationally and quickly live into roles and behaviors that we would otherwise deny and abhor. Within the Judeo-Christian tradition, we call this sin.
Like you, my heart has wept and my mind has been aghast at the murder of Charlie Kirk. Tyler Robinson, the alleged 22-year-old shooter, like the majority of lone gunmen before him, slid into the dark corners of the internet and into a role and behavior that he would otherwise deny and abhor,
like Desmond Holly, the 16-year-old who allegedly shot two students at Evergreen High School on the same day – Wednesday, Sept. 10;
like Vance Boelter, the 57-year-old who stalked and murdered Minnesota House of Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and of Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and wife Yvette Hoffman, and attempted to murder their daughter Hope Hoffman in June;
like Cody Balmer, the 38-year-old man who struggled financially and once attempted suicide, who firebombed the home of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro in April.
Unlike the Stanford Prison Experiment, no one knew or was able to stop the slide into horrific sin by each of these males. But there is another slide into extremism that can be stopped, and it involves all of us.
Socially and culturally, we are—often unintentionally—experimenting with extremism, self-righteousness, rigidity, and blame in our rhetoric instead of openness, curiosity, compromise, and dialogue. None of us has a monopoly on the truth; all of us have something to learn from those with whom we disagree. As followers of Jesus, we have to be willing to wade into those rare waters and replenish them; otherwise they will dry up.
I respect Charlie Kirk’s desire to stand as a follower of Jesus. I also respect his invitation to students on college campuses to debate the issues of the day. At our best, this is what we do in a democracy: we debate the merits of ideas, not kill the other person for theirs. Make no mistake: one does not have to pull a trigger to condemn and kill another person in our heart and mind. We are followers of higher law. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment” (Matthew 5:21–22).
It is time to stop this experiment in extremism—where we know we are right and the “other” is obviously wrong and even evil. It is poisoning our souls, the souls of our churches, and the souls of our country. We can do better, and we must do better—all of us. Fortunately, we do not have to do it alone, for God stands by to help us if we but ask. Let’s ask, and stop the experiment, and start rebuilding a better way of living, instead of dying together.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
Lead Pastor
FUMC Plano
