Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Conflict Delayed...

It sort of hit me the other day while looking at photos on the big picture (boston.com/bigpicture... check it out if you haven't yet) that we are at a fairly key, yet easily overlooked period as a church. We have a tendency as people, i think, (oh geez, here comes a crass generalization but I'm going with it anyway) to engage with conflict only when it is directly in front of our faces. Here's an analogy of what I'm talking about. I have beef with the fact that my sister doesn't seem to respect my stuff. However, instead of engaging with the issue at the time or trying to work out some sort of mutual understanding, I wait until she uses my guitar without asking to make it "a thing". I think that to a larger extent we did this with the last election. There is a definite rift growing in the American church (or at least the part of it I have first hand experience with) where the values of a more "traditional" consitituency are at odds with a group of evangelicals who would consider themselves more "progessive" (dang that's a lot of terminology, I'm trying to avoid anything that would be cast as unfair to either side). We saw these issues rear their ugly heads during the climactic conclusion to the most recent election season. Abortion, immigration, global welfare, were discussed or debated or clashed over as it became very obvious that people are developing very different takes on what it means to follow Christ. And then, the election, and as far as I can see, these issues were dropped, moved on from. Have the wounds that were caused by these debates that easily been healed? Is there a sudden mutual respect between groups present in the Church? Are we okay with the fact that there are some very stark contrasts among a body that has been called to pursue unity. I'll admit I'm skeptical... but I think we really need to figure out a way to work through this junk... otherwise I think we're looking at some huge issues for the church and division could be a very real problem. Just thinking...