I feel like I am sitting “behind enemy lines,” writing from the environs of Ft. Myers, Florida. The dominant culture of Bible-believing fundamentalism is everywhere to be seen, in a countryside awash in independent little churches surrounded by big parking lots.

In fact, I am already sweating where we can go to worship this coming Sunday, as an openly gay couple would probably be about as welcome as a fly in your sweet tea.

But the environment underscores the deeply-divided character of American Christianity. Having grown up in the Lutheran fold, I experienced first-hand the arrogance of a fine tradition that really did believe and teach it was “the only true church.” But with the rise of evangelical fundamentalism in the last two generations, I have had more of a taste than I wanted of arrogance coming from the religious right. The reactive and even hateful rejection of progressive denominations (still populated with faithful believers even in declining numbers) by those who push “decision” theology and “born-again” self-congratulatory piety, is annoying at best and deeply painful beyond words. I have often thought that if the only choice in the Christian church of the future were American fundamentalism, I would simply cease to be a practicing Christian.

Fundamentalists should not take this as a sign of my liberal or sinful theological weakness. But I still feel so strongly that fundamentalism is not the true Christian faith, and certainly not a faith I can live by.

But I stand as indicted as anyone. Too many of us are not as concerned about unity of witness and mutual love as we are about being right. And the “other guys” are, of course, not right in my (not-always humble) opinion!

Truth check: If what divides us gathers more power than what unites us as Christians, what divides us has become our idolatry.

God is all powerful. God wills our unity in Christ. We are not seeking

God’s will for the church if we continue to insist that we are right and other Christians are wrong. In other words, dismissing other Christians as wrong is not an answer to the premise that Christians are to be united in love. We cannot simply reject the faith of others as if it is not Christian.

But we are still left with the problem of how to tolerate those other Christians who disagree with us so profoundly. There is little choice, of course, except to be in conversation with people we don’t agree with and–because of the balkanization of the Christian world—don’t really like. I feel as much anguish about this as anybody. Conversation with those who seem to share the same faith but talk about us as if we are enemies, takes nerves of steel and confidence that we have received the grace of God and the guidance of the Spirit—that we are not misled or self-deceived. We must, in short, have absolute faith equal to the absolute faith of those who see the world so differently.

I am not ready to offer any keen new wisdom that resolves all of this, except to look back at my own thoughts about idolatry. If I want to steer clear of idolatry, I must be willing to steer clear of my own certitude or smugness, my own need to be right in every instance, and to put nothing in front of me except the will of God that we all have the same mind and heart as we have in Christ (Cf. John 17:20. Philippians 2:2, 5–11). Yes, it’s a tough assignment, but if the real good news of Christ is to ever reach the people of our times, it will only be if we can “get over ourselves,” turn aside from our own idolatry and do as Christ has asked.

Meanwhile, it’s Thursday and I need to find a place to go to worship on Sunday.

— Pastor Dan Hooper