Maroc - CANADIANMENNONITE.ORG - A La Une - 30/Aug 14:35

Can't we all just get along?

Are you losing hope in the possibility of everyone getting along?   Division in the church is nothing new for me. I grew up in a harsh, conservative fundamentalist church that judged everybody. Especially liberal Christians. In my early 20s, I became agnostic and relentlessly judgmental toward conservative Christians.   I returned to Christian faith and church in my late 20s after meeting some progressive liberal Christians. I found their focus on compassion, justice and peacemaking refreshing.   Over the past few years, however, I’ve observed the same judgmental and dogmatic spirit in the religious left. It’s likely always been there, but I’m noticing it now.   The truth is that all human beings, whether we lean left or right, are hardwired for confirmation bias, ideological dogmatism, scapegoating and prejudicial attitudes toward people or groups we perceive to be threats to the well-being of those people and things we care about.   Recent research suggests that, just as we are born with certain physical and personality traits, we also come with an innate propensity to be liberal or conservative. Although we can learn to manage our predispositions, we can’t change them. Liberals, for instance, tend to be more open-minded and creative, and to seek novelty and diversity. Conservatives tend toward lives, systems and structures that are more orderly, predictable, conventional and organized.   As the church, however, we’re called to accept each other as we are. This means, in part, accepting our political and ideological differences. In theory, this mutual acceptance and respect will empower us to work together for the greater good, allowing our differences to complement one another, rather than divide us.   This is easier said than done.   I’ve dedicated the past 20 years of my life to this vision. I believe it’s what the Spirit has called me to do.   Yet I seem to be failing.   A few years ago, our church leadership discerned that we needed to be more explicit about being inclusive of all people. Since then, many of our more conservative members have left. They left for diverse and nuanced reasons, but the commonality is that those who left were more conservative.   Their departure was devastating for me, as these are people I respect and love. Some I’ve considered close friends.   It’s been a very hard season for our church. This exodus has made me question my calling to create and nurture a church culture where all people—including conservative Christians—can experience belonging. I concluded the Spirit had given me an impossible task and I considered giving up.   Yet I haven’t given up, for many reasons.   First, I know God has been known to do the impossible. I also realized I needed to surrender my expectations. The goal of ministry is not to produce a specific end result—it’s to be faithful to God’s calling. I’ve also been challenged and encouraged to learn and grow from my mistakes.   The gravest mistake we make as churches, pastors and Christians is allowing anything other than God to become our “god,” our highest priority, ultimate concern and primary focus.   When we do this, we abandon the kingdom of God and instead take up residence in the realm of “isms”— dogmatism, tribalism, nationalism, progressivism, inclusivism, evangelical- ism, conservatism, etc.   When anything other than the person and presence of our Creator becomes our highest priority, we need to recognize we have fallen into idolatry.   When good things like the truth, justice, peace, equality, morality or freedom become our god, that’s when we find ourselves speaking and acting in the name of God in ways that are adversarial to God.   All human beings, including Christians, are “fallen,” which means we’re prone to worship and serve false gods. The only way to be liberated from our fallen programming is to allow the Spirit to continually renew our minds. Whether we’re conservative or liberal, our minds need to be perpetually formed and reformed by the Spirit, because we’re all constantly lured back into our default programming.   Our top priority must be tending to the presence and activity of the Spirit of Christ in our midst. For this, we need our mystics to disciple us more than ever, because nurturing our responsive awareness to God’s presence is the only way we’ll find hope for unity and reconciliation in the church. It’s also how we’ll embody this much needed hope for the rest of the world.   Troy Watson is a pastor at Avon Church in Stratford, Ontario. He can be reached at troy@avonchurch.ca   Photo: Sai Abhinivesh Burla/Unsplash Share this page: