The Illusion of the Middle

People love to say they are “in the middle.” It sounds wise. It sounds reasonable. It sounds like peace. In a divided age, it feels noble to refuse taking sides. After all, who wants to be seen as extreme, angry, or dogmatic?

But neutrality, in the world we live in today, is not a virtue. It is the easiest form of self-deception.

There is a growing illusion that standing somewhere in the center somehow places you above the fight, when in reality, it simply means you have chosen not to see what is right in front of you. The moral war of our age is not between two parties or two personalities. It is between those who believe in objective truth and those who believe truth is whatever you feel in the moment.

That is not politics. That is worldview.

The Deflection of the “Middle”

When people say they are independent, it often means they do not want to be labeled. They do not want the conflict or responsibility that comes with conviction. I do not say that to insult anyone. I say it because I have watched this pattern unfold again and again.

Someone makes a moral statement about truth or faith or culture, and someone else responds, “Well, not everyone fits in those boxes.” That may be true statistically, but it completely misses the point. It takes a moral argument and turns it into a demographic one.

That kind of deflection feels like a small thing, but it is deeply corrosive to honest conversation. It subtly rewrites the argument from “What is right?” to “How many people agree with you?” Truth does not need a majority to be true. It only needs to be consistent with reality.

When I said that half the country says, “Christ is King,” and the other half says, “No Kings,” I was not trying to erase exceptions or deny that some people fall somewhere in between. It was a short, ironic, satirical observation about worldview—those who willingly submit to divine authority, and those who reject all authority but their own. The middle ground between those two positions is an illusion.

The Comfort of Neutrality

Neutrality is comfortable. It allows people to believe they are moral without ever having to risk anything for morality. It allows them to say, “Both sides have their problems,” and walk away feeling balanced while never confronting the fact that one side is promoting moral decay and the other is at least trying, however imperfectly, to preserve order.

We live in a world that rewards fence-sitting. It applauds the person who says, “I just do not buy into all that.” But that attitude does not create peace. It creates apathy. It trains people to value comfort over conviction. And eventually, neutrality becomes indistinguishable from complicity.

In times of moral confusion, silence becomes an endorsement of whatever evil is loudest. There is no virtue in refusing to choose between right and wrong simply because both sides make you uncomfortable.

The Middle Is Not Safe

The middle often feels like a safe place to stand, but it is not. The middle is where you get hit by traffic from both directions. It is the place where conviction dies of exhaustion, where truth is diluted until it pleases everyone and challenges no one.

Those who stand in the middle believe they have found peace, but what they have really found is distance from responsibility. When the world calls evil good, and you say nothing because you want to appear fair, you have already taken a side. The refusal to stand for truth is a decision to let lies rule unopposed.

Jesus said, “Whoever is not with me is against me.” That is not extremism. It is reality. There are only two foundations: truth or deception, light or darkness, God or self. You cannot build a moral house halfway on sand and halfway on rock and expect it to stand.

The Psychological Trap

There is also a psychological side to this. Many people in the so-called middle are not dishonest; they are weary. They are overwhelmed by chaos, division, and noise. They look at both extremes and think, “I just want peace.” I understand that completely. I have felt it too.

But peace does not come from denial. Peace comes from clarity. It comes from standing firmly enough in truth that no lie can shake you. The reason the middle feels so appealing is because it promises relief from tension. But that relief is temporary. Reality does not stop being reality because we stop paying attention.

Eventually, the fence collapses, and everyone sitting on it falls to one side or the other.

How We Lost the Courage to Choose

This culture trains us to treat all moral claims as equal. We are told that all beliefs are valid, all lifestyles are neutral, all truths are personal. But if all truths are personal, then truth itself becomes meaningless. If morality is relative, then evil is just a matter of opinion.

We have reached the point where people are terrified to say, “This is wrong,” even when they know it is. They fear judgment more than they fear injustice. They fear being called hateful more than they fear standing by while innocent people suffer.

Neutrality was never meant to be a permanent state. It is a bridge to discernment, not a destination. The longer you stay there, the more it becomes a refuge for cowardice disguised as compassion.

The Real Courage to Choose

Taking a stand for truth does not mean you hate those who disagree. It means you love them enough to tell them what is real. It means you care more about their soul than their comfort. The world says love means acceptance, but that is false. Real love tells the truth even when it costs something.

The illusion of the middle is seductive because it feels peaceful, but peace without truth is a lie. Compromise can preserve civility for a time, but it cannot preserve conscience forever.

Eventually, every person has to choose who or what they serve. The middle cannot exist forever because truth and falsehood cannot coexist forever. One will always drive out the other.

The Call Back to Conviction

We have to recover the courage to stand for what is right, even when it costs relationships, jobs, or approval. We have to remember that moral clarity is not cruelty. It is strength. It is love anchored in truth.

There is a verse that says, “Stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” That is not a call to arrogance. It is a call to endurance. The middle feels safe for a while, but only those who stand on truth will withstand the storm.

Neutrality is not peace. It is paralysis. And the only cure for paralysis is conviction.