The Fact/Value Split

I am currently teaching a class at our church based on Nancy Pearcey’s Total Truth. One of the key issues Pearcey discusses is the insidious fact/value split. The world we (i.e. Americans) inhabit tends to filter everything through this fact/value grid. Religion is one of the subjects lumped into the value category. A subject like science, on the other hand, falls into the fact category. It is assumed that values, like religion, are fine for the private realm but not fit for the public realm. Instead, the public realm is open for discussions on matters of fact.

This fact/value division became very clear to me while assisting at an elementary school a couple of years ago. I was sitting in on a fifth grade science class that was learning about the origin of the universe. One of the students asked about God. I was intrigued. How would this teacher respond? The teacher’s response was that the “God” question is a matter of opinion and something that the student needed to discuss at home with their parents. Here was the fact/value division rearing its ugly head and, in the process, communicating to a classroom of fifth graders that the question of God, unlike issues of science, was an opinion to be handled in the privacy of one’s home.

This fact/value assumption is also a way in which Christians are tuned out. Consider the ’04 presidential debate. One of the questions came from a Catholic lady in the audience who wanted to know why Kerry supported the killing of unborn babies. Kerry’s response was something like: ‘I understand and respect your position, but…’ I don’t recall exactly how Kerry affirmed abortion after the “but,” but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that with this “but” Kerry was nullifying the comments of this lady and subtly sliding them into the value realm. Essentially, Kerry relied on this fact/value split in order to avert this lady’s question. Kerry said that the lady had a fine opinion, a fine value but it was just that—a value. Interestingly, no one seemed to question this sleight of hand.

Be on the lookout for this fact/value division. In the coming months, as the presidential race thickens, this divide will surface. During a debate this last week there was irritation from the Obama camp over the "irrelevant" questions bombarding Barack. Some questions included issues related to his pastor, Jeremiah Wright. All the chagrin over the questions' relevancy are perhaps rooted in this fact/value division. We assume that these types of questions--mostly related to "private" life (value)--are irrelevant to public life (fact). Bridge the chasm and many of these questions become entirely appropriate.

I wonder, too, whether a culture that treats religion like a beverage or ice cream flavor (i.e. preference/value) will be adept enough to grapple with the global, religious issues that have elbowed their way into public life. Like it or not, the value became fact following 9/11. Of course, its immediate effects were devastating. Its long-term effects, however, are still playing out. And it will be interesting to see how well this fact/value split will hold-up in our post-9/11 age.