Hate

Yesterday I received some actual hate-mail. It was full of edifying stuff like “you are sick”, “you think you know more than God”, “think of your family” and other such mature and thought-through rhetoric.

Wow.

Some people have too much time on their hands.

This is actually the second such piece of literature that I have received. At least this person put their name (if only their first name), the last one typed it and did not sign it.

There is a story about John Wesley, who, one morning, was riding his horse along. Suddenly, he was hit by the realisation that no one had persecuted him that day. He dismounted the horse, fell to his knees and cried out, “Oh Lord, what am I doing wrong?” Immediately, someone stood up from behind a bush and through some mud at him. Amen.

I guess when you dip your toe into controversial issues – in Wesley time is was penal substitution and original sin – but today, it is issues such as LGBTQ, then you are going to be laid open to attack. Sad though it is. I read a quote recently:

A gay Christian is not an oxymoron

But a hate-filled Christian is

How can someone spew anger and hatred against a brother or sister and do it, supposedly, in the name of love?

Calvin, the 16th century Swiss reformer, was responsible for shaping the religious persecution in Geneva, and was personally, directly involved in the torturing and execution of at least one believer who would not bow to his views of faith. He even deliberately found the wettest, greenest wood so that it would burn slower and longer and cause the maximum pain to the victim when he was burnt.

Now that is definitely someone who I want to shape my theology! That certainly models Jesus’ life and teaching and shows a clear understanding of who “the god who is love” is.* For Calvin, God was only love to those he had chosen, to everyone else, he was hate. I guess, if it is good enough for someone like him, whose views have shaped so many Christian, evangelical minds, then it is good enough for those people themselves.

Did our lord himself not say, “people will know you by how you hate each other”? Oh no, wait a minute, it was love each other, wasn’t it?

Unity

Here is the thing. We are one body.

We are the body of Christ – Orthodox, Catholic, Anabaptist, Quakers, Reformed, Anglican and even Vineyard. One body. We all have lots wrong and we all have lots right. We all have a different thing to bring to the table and we all make up part of the whole picture.

For the early church fathers, unity was paramount. The creeds are very broad in their statements, because, even by the fourth century, the views were very broad and the creeds are a statement of unity. These are the things that we agree are the fundamentals. The rest is details. Even then, people who were considered heretics (those who’s belief fell outside the agreed beliefs) were still in the church, and conversation was continuing. Arius, for example, was a bishop who did not believe that Jesus was God. His beliefs form the foundations of what are commonly held to be cults today – Christadelphians, Jehovah’s witnesses and the like. Arguably, it was reaction to his teachings that led to the church creating the creeds as a response to him. However, he was still a bishop and in the church and the conversation went on.

Unity was (and should still be) paramount. In those days, the very worst sin was considered to be the sin of schism – for the church to split. As I write today, I am part of a church with over 30,000 denominations, that since the reformation, has grown by 2-3 new denominations a week!

Do you see the problem? One church, which, whenever it disagrees with itself, splits in a huff and starts another church.

Unity should be paramount.

Unity is not uniformity. It does not mean that we all should hold exactly the same view on everything. We are all wrong about stuff and we all have our cultural, experiential, personal lenses through which we view things.

It is okay to disagree. Really, it is. If we did not disagree then nothing would ever change. We would still have slavery and we would still be persecuting the Jews like Luther told us to.

Disagreeing is not disunity. Obviously, we all think we are right or we would not think that. The key is being able to hold that view lightly and to be prepared to recognise that we might be wrong.

Hatred is disunity. breaking relationships is disunity. Splitting the body of Christ is disunity.

Let us disagree and continue the conversation. You never know, we may both learn something.

Cowardice

Here is the thing. I am happy to chat with anyone about my beliefs and why they have changed over the years. I am happy to sit down with someone who is a brother or sister and disagree on many things, but still call them my sister or brother.

But…

People who lob grenades and run away, are being cowardly and Revelation 2:18 has some very strong words for them. If you do not agree with me or anyone else, then let us talk about it. Let us discuss our differences and see if we both cannot learn something.

Don’t throw mud from behind a bush. Don’t judge your brother and sister unless you want to be judged by the same measure. We are one body. We all get it wrong and we all make mistakes. What matters is, did we make mistakes in an attempt to “love the Lord our God and love our neighbour as yourself” or did we do it as an attempt to prove we were right?

Unity.

 

 

* This is sarcasm^, by the way.

^ or “irony” if you are a millennial.