Just Say "NO" to Negativity

Shhhhh .... Listen carefully!! What is that sound?  It is the sound of silence; for the first time in weeks I enjoyed an evening at home without a flood of "robocalls" on behalf of candidates running for office.  Here in Kansas, we had competitive races with national implications, and we got a taste of what swing states like Ohio must experience every election cycle.  The big money rolls in, and our voice mail and mailboxes are filled with messages and postcards.  And most of those are messages are negative, warning us of the dangers of the opposition candidate, attempting to "drive up the negatives" for the opponent.  And every candidate expresses their distaste for these ads, and yet they do it anyway.  Why?  Because it works!

I recently came across a blog post by Square2Square marketing where they talked about the power of negative marketing.  Among their conclusions were that "negative emotions are always the strongest ones" and that "we can't ignore the fact that negative emotions are the strongest drivers of
behavior."  They pointed to a study in the Harvard Business Review that noted that the top three "viral emotions" in marketing strategy are anger, disgust, and surprise.  It works!

So the negativity works in campaigns.  But we also have learned that negativity doesn't work for governing.  That reminds me of a change in approach I took many years ago when talking to people about the value of Christian school education.  People often give their reasons for considering Christian education in terms of what they don't want ... "I don't want <fill in the blank> that I will find at the public school."  At the point, I gently turn the discussion to talking about what is positive about Christian education ... what we do want.   At a Christian school, students are taught to view every discipline from a Biblical worldview, a "real world" education.  Students are taught and mentored by godly Christian teachers, passionate about discipling the next generation of Christian leaders.  The Cardus Education Survey found that Christian school students are uniquely prepared to be productive members of their local churches.  Every child is seen as a unique creation, formed in the image of God to be respected and nurtured.  This whole positive approach is well articulated in this post by James K.A. Smith, professor of philosophy at Calvin College.

Consider what Christian school education has to offer ... I'm "positive" you will be impressed!