CREEDE HINSHAW: I am not at war

A segment of the church, a gaggle of shouting radio hosts and a few desperate office seekers keep screaming that we Christians are at war. Christian America, they say, is under assault by a godless secularist enemy lurking outside the door. If you don’t agree with their analysis you, too, my dear reader, belong to the godless conspiracy.

I have two observations:

1. I disagree with their militaristic metaphor.

2. I am not at war with them or with anybody.

I don’t intend to take down Christians with whom I disagree. Disagreeing with one’s brothers and sisters in Christ does not mean one is making war on Jesus, denying the Kingdom of God or pulling a Judas Iscariot on Christian America.

I understand where this language originates. Jesus opposed Satan firmly and the New Testament letters contain diatribes against evil. Overly eager leaders in the early church (and in the church of every age) hastily identified and expelled heretics. There is ample, tragic precedent for those who define every disagreement as Armageddon’s threshold.

But the vitriolic alarmists too quickly label those who disagree with them as evil godless secularists conspiring to create an atheist utopia. No wonder the label “Christian” has such a bad name. The crusading, take-no-prisoner approach has sullied what it means to follow Jesus. Those who shout the loudest are alienating and enraging the very people they want to convert.

Honest, sincere resolution of disagreement over believing in and following Jesus cannot happen when one side screams “War, war!” As our nation pursues what it means to be a city set upon a hill many options present themselves. There will be sharp disagreements on whether we are moving forward or backward. Fair enough. That doesn’t make either side godless. It makes both sides citizens of a great nation who are proudly engaged in civic debate.

I’ve known a few agnostics and atheists but they weren’t godless. I’ve known some Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims but they weren’t godless. I’ve known tons of people who never attend church and often get nervous around preachers, but they weren’t godless. Every person on earth is made in God’s image, even those with whom we disagree. Maybe especially those with whom we disagree.

When my wife disagrees with me I don’t accuse her of waging war on me. When my children disagree with me I don’t call them sons of the devil. When church members have disagreed with me I haltingly learned to accept disagreement graciously, albeit sometimes grudgingly.

At times I’ve had to admit I wasn’t as smart as I thought. At times I’ve been stubbornly wrong. But I have tried not to distort honest disagreement into divine warfare where God always took my side. Disagree with me, but please don’t tell me I’m making war on God, Jesus, the church, society or you.

In civic and religious discourse we agree or disagree; we strive to convince the other side; we humbly prevail or we graciously lose. God is more often found in dialogue than in defending ramparts that are not being assaulted.

Email columnist Crrede Hinshaw at [email protected].