Can’t we all just get along?
That’s a question you see popping-up quite a lot in the Church these days, especially online. There’s a groundswell of support among lots of churchfolk, for the idea that unity trumps everything; that Christians need to publicly agree on all issues, all the time. The logic behind this; is that when two or more followers of Jesus “have it out”, in front of other non-believers on social media, (Atheists, unchurched people, once-churched people, or even less-people), that it reflects badly on Him.
In essence: Disagreement makes for a lousy testimony.
This is a seemingly Biblically-inspired backlash to the vitriol that the ol’ Interweb generates every day on messageboards and comments sections, with supposed Christians arguing about everything from Harry Potter, to Fox News, to gay marriage, to the Pope’s hat.
This Kumbaya Christianity, demands that everybody plays nice, and avoids airing any dirty religious laundry, for fear of soling the Savior in the process.
The problem is, this non-confrontation is really not something that the Bible condones or requires from believers.
Now, there are sections of the New Testament epistles of Paul and Peter, instructing readers (or rather, hearers at the time), to be “like minded” (Philippians 2:2, 1 Peter 3:8), or to love one another, or express patience and kindness, etc. Many supporters of Kumbaya Christianity, will point to these passages and say, “See, I told ya!”. However, to do this, they have to completely ignore the original context of these writings.
These are largely pastoral letters of encouragement, written to small church communities throughout the Roman Empire, trying to survive the growing pains of childhood in a hostile place. The implicit and presupposed understanding of the recipients of these letters, is that they are connected, close, and mutually invested in one another. These were extended families of faith, whose intimate relationships were already a given, so the expectation of them is extremely high.
Yet these passages, championing spiritual solidarity, were never meant to address the specific ways that Christians relate today through technology; the reality that we can engage in real-time, with thousands of people from all over the world, with every faith background imaginable.
We can speak with absolute strangers, in very public, passionate religious conversations, surrounded by a virtual stadium of onlookers; pastors, church dropouts, Agnostics, Sunday School teachers, Christmas Christians, skeptics, seekers, and every other flavor in the belief spice rack.
And it’s in these immediate and very high profile conversations, where the need for honest, direct and sometimes vehement disagreement between Christians is not only OK, it’s downright critical.
You see, for as wonderful as technology is; (as it enables us to instantly travel between continents, and to share our faith with untold numbers of people), it also allows people to broadcast shaky theology, religious distortions, and plain old bad ideas, to everyone on their News Feed. They are able to pollute cyberspace with all sorts of junk, and call it Christianity.
In those moments, sometimes the call of the Christ-follower is not to avoid or endure, but to confront directly and immediately; not out of disrespect for someone, or for the desire to embarrass or insult them, but to ensure that the hundreds or thousands who are encountering those words and ideas that one feels misrepresents Christ, will see and hear that there just might be an alternative.
I’ve found, that instead of non-believers viewing my bold, passionate confrontations with other believers on social media, as reasons to reject God or to avoid faith, they actually value these discussions, as confirmation that Christians can strongly oppose one another’s beliefs, and not only preserve everyone’s dignity, but actually represent Jesus as they disagree.
The conflict, may actually draw people to Christ.
In this way, Christianity moves from being an insider’s club, where everyone blindly parrots a party line, to a living, messy, honest community of people, who think that Jesus is worth fighting for.
Throughout Scripture, Christians are called to fight injustice anywhere they find it. They are implored to confront bad teaching and religious hypocrisy and oppression, (even if it comes in the form of a believer’s Tweets).
The Church doesn’t merely sit around the campfire, holding hands and avoiding reality, but engages one another about stuff that matters, with the kind of bold authenticity that the world is waiting for.
Love one another, yes, but do more than sing easy songs.
Now, pass the S’mores.
