George Bush and Church Splits
When George went to war in Iraq, a great number of people were convinced it was about oil and…. and profit! However, my native intelligence told me otherwise. Consider… What sane president, in the U.S. would ever go to war knowing that for the last 50 years war was political suicide? Remember Viet Nam? Any sane president knows that war is not good for popularity polls. War does not get you reelected. So why did Bush go to war? It was probably because he considered the war more important than his reputation. In others words, it just might have been an integrity issue. “Not a chance” they say. There has to be a false motive!
Many still were convinced that President Bush was doing just that… not political suicide, but lust for profits. You couldn’t reason with them. You couldn’t argue the inconsistency of their thinking. “yea, sure, but we know…”
So what does this have to do with church splits?
“Church splits are always bad! ” Really? How so? “Well, they just are.” Dissent is always bad (bad dog, bad dog!), therefore church splits are always bad. Its Simple logic… But what if that dissent was a stand for truth… biblical truth? Yes, it is always better not to disagree, but to pursue unity. So the logic goes. But what if one had to leave, with others, for the sake of truth? For integrity? Is it wrong then? No it couldn’t be for truth…
Sadly, like President Bush, there is not much room for a church split to be acceptable in our religious culture. Unfortunately, there is just too much sentiment against it. Sort of like George. He couldn’t go to war for noble purposes… maybe the intelligence he received was a little more detailed than those who accused him? Not a chance! But perhaps he did?
And just maybe, some dissent is good. Not all dissent is met with hearts to receive it. I remember a verse in Acts 15 that said something like there was “great dissension and debate.” And we discover that Paul and Barnabas were the ones dissenting! And we are grateful for elders in Jerusalem who did not just ‘write off” their dissent but listened beyond their “bias” and a church split was prevented. Unfortunately, this will not always be the case in the church. Fortunately for us, the early church pondered the disent and today we are not a “judaized” church today because of it…. Thank you Paul for standing.
I hope we would not put blinders on just because our western tradition resents dissent. Perhaps the President went to war for unselfish reasons. Perhaps not all of those who dissent have “evil” motives… just maybe they love truth over compliance. Peace at all costs! The early reformers stated that the Church was always in need of reform…. let us not settle for less, just because we want peace more than war…..
Interesting thoughts, Chris! I have always felt that any unity that is maintained at the expense of truth is not worth having. If you are looking for unity at all costs, some of the cults and sects out there are the best places to go. But if you are looking for truth, you will unfortunately have to look elsewhere. So in my judgment, we should obviously pursue unity as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, but we shouldn’t overlook truth and righteousness in the process. Thanks for sharing this!
Chris- great viewpoint. I find it interesting that in a western world like ours that worships dissent at all costs & w/o thought that churches tend towards unity & submission at great cost. It seems that much of the reluctance towards change might stem from strong leadership enjoying a place of prominence, or at least worrying about the “non-leader types”’s ability to “lead” in a different, but biblical, fashion.
This IS an interesting piece. I like it, maybe because I’m naturally drawn to dissension. For example, I think GWB was prone to acts of insanity. Voting him into office was even more insane. There. That felt good…but is it true? It is for me. And this is where the problem lies. Truth. Who’s truth is truer?
As for dissent, I’m all for it. Without it we’d be English not American; there wouldn’t be a Lutheran among us. I’d enjoy a clean kitchen courtesy of whatever people group we could enslave, and we’d still be sending troops to Viet Nam.
Furthermore, I encourage dissent to take place in our churches…it gets rid of a lot of riff raff. Ha. Fortunately churches are a temporary fix – the Bride is eternal. Churches will never be more perfect than our own fallen nature and as such needs to be kept in check and that, I believe, is accomplished by whistle blowers. Dissenters.
Eventually we will all be reconciled to “truth” and I doubt that any of us will escape without some scraps of egg on our faces. But then, it will not matter.
Becka, your comments are always provocative. I am glad someone is reading these tirades of mine. I should have made a disclaimer, that I do not imply by my post that I also endorse all of GWB’s behavior. It is just sad how often false motives are attributed to those who do dissent rather than thinking through the issues knowing that we all see through a mirror dimly.
Leave your response!
Recent Posts
Archives
Bible Version
Blogs of Friends
Recent Comments
Most Commented