When Christians Disagree

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In light of the recent Supreme Court decision on gay marriage and the start of yet another increasingly contentious presidential race, I have spent time this month in conversation with denominational leaders across the United Methodist Church about how we can move forward when Christians disagree. 

Jesus told his disciples that the litmus test of true faith is the demonstration of selfless love: “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other” (John 13:34-35).

Love transcends political and doctrinal ideologies. So we must put that love into practice in the church, demonstrating to the world that differences do not have to bring contention or division. If we can’t love our brothers and sisters in Christ, how can we show love to the rest of God’s hurting world? God’s redemptive mission through Jesus is restoring all relationships that have been broken due to the barriers that our nationalistic, tribal, political and religious systems have created that divide us. The gospel of grace breaks down the dividing walls.

“Christ is our peace. He made both Jews and Gentiles into one group. With his body, he broke down the barrier of hatred that divided us. He canceled the detailed rules of the Law so that he could create one new person out of the two groups, making peace. He reconciled them both as one body to God by the cross, which ended the hostility to God. When he came, he announced the good news of peace to you who were near. We both have access to the Father through Christ by the one Spirit” (Eph. 2:14-18).

The whole context of this passage affirms the reality of unity based on our connection to the restorative work of Jesus Christ. Christian identity is not centered in our political affiliations, national interests or denominational doctrinal distinctives, but in Jesus.

It was in response to a divisive controversy in the Anglican church that Samuel Stone penned the words of the hymn “The Church’s One Foundation” in 1866:

The Church’s one foundation

is Jesus Christ her Lord;

she is his new creation


by water and the Word.

From heaven he came and sought her

to be his holy bride;

with his own blood he bought her,

and for her life he died.

Elect from every nation,

yet one o’er all the earth;

her charter of salvation,

one Lord, one faith, one birth;

one holy Name she blesses,

partakes one holy food,

and to one hope she presses,

with every grace endued.

No matter what controversies rage, the church can display unity by focusing on its common identity in Jesus Christ.

Part of this post was excerpted from my book with Chuck Gutenson, Hijacked: responding to the partisan church divide (Abingdon Press, 2012).

The Rev. Mike Slaughter is senior pastor of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio. He is co-author with the Rev. Adam Hamilton of the letter "A Way Forward," proposing to give local congregations and annual conferences a "local option" on acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in membership and ministry.