"That we all may be one." We pray it almost every Sunday. The other Sunday as we were saying it, something clicked in me and I thought, "Wow. This prayer is a huge challenge for all of us Christians." Maybe especially me.
Christians come in many different shapes and sizes, more specifically different political views. That shouldn't be so bad. When you come upon someone whose view is different than yours it's an opportunity to test out your opinions, wrestle with the angel like Jacob did. With any luck, you'll come out stronger. (In Jacob's case he came out with a new name too, Israel.)
I once had a minister who said, "If you're sitting in a church and everyone has the same political opinion you do, get out of there." Good advice. Because it seems that as Christians, our biggest goal is learning to love others, especially those others who are different from us. "Love your enemies," Jesus said.
But there are a lot of people out there that would have us not love each other. I don't know if it's "divide and conquer" or a way of claiming power. Hey, if you say you're the sole keeper of the gospel truth that gives you the right to kick a lot of others off your mountaintop. It might even be good for fundraising.
Personally I become wary every time I see "evangelical Christian" used as a quick label. Of course I'm evangelical. To believe the good news is to want to share it. But am I that label some journalist is giving me? Why must we all be lumped in a group? I prefer the term a friend uses: passionate Christian. To be a passionate Christian is to love and that's what counts most.
There are hot-button issues that are supposed to divide us Christians, left and right, sheep and goats. The sanctity of life, abortion, gay marriage. I can see myself sitting at a table all alone when I say, "I understand the heartfelt opinions of my fellow Christians on these issues." I don't mean that as a cop out. If you can't understand, if you can't have compassion for someone who disagrees with you, what sort of person are you?
I'm not talking about tolerance. Tolerance seems like a bland, passive, often patronizing value. There is a faint air of superiority in tolerating. But loving someone who is different from you, really appreciating them, that's the goal.
Not long ago I was reminded of Chuck Colson's introduction to the reissue of his memoir Born Again. He specifically thanks the editor Elizabeth Sherrill who worked on the book and points out how fond they became of each other, even though they're on opposite sides of the political fence. Elizabeth, who is a friend, told me that the affection went both ways. And she hasn't voted Republican in decades.
We used to sing a song in our high school church youth group, guitars strumming: "They'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love," the refrain repeated again just as a reminder. Seems like the only way to make that prayer "That we all may be one" come true.
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"But loving someone who is different from you, really appreciating them, that's the goal."
Start by stop viewing those different than you as your enemies.
>>trying (and failing) to imagine a realistic scenario that doesn't cause me anxiety and even fright as a gay atheist.
Dear gods, no....
God is a God of ORDER not disorder. That only proves he did not create all these differing faiths. There is a true Christian Path out there. Satan has the other 99.99% in his hip pocket.
But I actually know the answer to this; the thing that would bring not only all christians together but most of the rest of the world as well.
The answer? It's simple really. For the christian god to show up and prove he exists. Done and done.
If He showed up today, there is no reason to believe anything would be different. In fact, the Bible teaches that the Anti-Christ will be believed by many to be God. This is very disturbing and very telling of Satan's power here on Earth, since he is everything that God is not.
For a certain class of Christian, all they need is gay people standing up and saying, "keep your religion to yourself and stop trying to make my life's difficult and expensive as you can"
That's all it takes for them to find a sudden unity in their common enemy. Witness the Mormons and Catholics and über-evangelicals, and their recent statements about how evil the gay is
Becoming atheists.
As Christopher Hitchens used to say, "Religion poisons everything".
Religion = a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects
Think for yourself, following Christopher Hitchens is just your crutch du jour.
Just because I agree with something a man said doesn't mean I "follow" him.
Talk about clutching at straws...
I guess all the people that like writings of Madison must be religious. Lot of those.