There is a consistent tension in life to realize that we move forward and make progress by what brings us together, not what separates us.
Group and communal, national and religious identity can help us to see our place in the world, but these ways of categorization bring danger as well.
Anytime we see ourselves as defined against others we set up barriers and walls, stoke fear and wind up hurting ourselves and other people.
Much of the work and mission of the evangelical church can become caught up in emphasizing difference and division.
Here are a few sayings heard in various evangelical contexts that are symptomatic of such a way of seeing things:
Are they saved? (or “Are they a believer?)
Have they been baptized?
What kind of church do they go to?
Are they bible-believing?
Are they born again?
Were they raised in a Christian family?
Is that secular music?
Having been a pastor of an evangelical church for 25 years I have lived in the landscape of us and them. The lines became softer through the years, but they are still there. I feel that now, in faith, I can more fully embrace the reality that hopeful Christian belief brings me together with other people, including people who believe and think differently than I do. Maybe trusting in Jesus can mean that I can trust that I don’t have to “win” anyone. It’s helpful to know that not all parts of Christian history and theology have emphasized division. In the ancient church there were many teachers who stressed that Christian faith is in solidarity with people who see things differently.
The opposite error, of course, is to say that all belief is somehow the same. This is condescension, not understanding. It is not that all belief is the same, but rather that even in seeing things differently we can come together.
What I am seeking to articulate and unpack now is the reality that my Christian faith is at its best in letting go of division. There can still be coming to faith, there can still be awakening to conversion, but the fear and division is gone.
Karl Barth on the cover of TIME, April 20, 1962
Christian theologian Karl Barth related an encounter that took place as he gave a series of lectures in the 1950’s. Here is the brief remembrance as described in a biography of Barth:
“Several times during these weeks I was asked, ‘Aren’t you aware that many people in these lectures are not Christians?’ I always laughed and said, ‘It makes no difference to me.’ It would be quite dreadful if the faith of Christians aimed at separating people and cutting them off from one another. It is in fact the strongest motive for bringing people together and uniting them.”
There can be fear around this kind of talk. How can Christian faith be Christian if it is not emphasizing difference and division? I think we have a decent place to look in order to see how, Jesus in the Gospels. There is great hope in letting go of divisive thinking. Less fear, less haste, more faith, more gratitude, more joy.