by April Terry (personal blog at http://faithwarming.blogspot.com)

I recently came across an article at CNN.com  about Anne Rice leaving Christianity.  Read the fine print in the article and you find that it isn’t so much that she is leaving Christianity as it is that she’s leaving Christians.  Sometimes, I just can’t blame her.  I’ve felt that same pull to move in the exact opposite direction of many members of the body of Christ as well.  I find myself loving the faith, but not the follower.

I haven’t met too many people who didn’t like Jesus.  He’s a pretty popular guy even among atheists and those in other religions.  What most people object to is the way that Christianity is often boiled down to a few issues and a lot of judgments about what makes a Christian a Christian.  I believe that it’s a shallow look at a faith of great depth and beauty, but I’ve felt it myself in many ways.   Our ministry affords us the opportunity to minister to people in a direct and hands-on way, but when we start offering services to churches of various creeds, we find that we are questioned about where we stand politically, religiously, and morally.  While I can understand the questions, I have difficulty understanding why we would no longer be welcome to assist a church whose political affiliations were different from our own.  Yet, that is the reality.

Those who are new to Christianity these days often find that they like Jesus, but not Christians.   Because some are more outspoken than others, it’s hard to remember that we are a diverse body of Christ.  Christians range from gay pastors to members of the religious right, from snake handlers to purple-haired hosts on TBN, from pastors with cool hair to the austerity of the Amish.  With that diverse of a community, it is hard to believe that there could be a stereotypical Christian or Christianity, for that matter.

Sometimes, I wonder what Jesus would think about His followers today.  If he spent six months walking the countryside, would he marvel at the faith outside the church and shake his head at the lack of it within?  Would he love us all for our differences or reprimand us for our lack of unity?

Maybe we Christians need to start talking about what we agree on, rather than what we disagree on.   A friend of mine recently told me that the recent death of a family member brought together three brothers of her family.  None of the brothers had seen one another for five years since a political discussion had divided them.    That’s a tragedy that we must work to overcome in our faith as well.  Why should secondary issues, such as politics, set us apart from one another?

We tend to minimize the damage done when we polarize our faith.  We tell ourselves that we are standing for what we believe, but how much damage have we done by our efforts to coerce others into our way of thinking?  There is a better way—a greater kind of love often bridges any differences that might exist.

Each week, I have lunch with a different kind of Christian from myself.  She and I can have political discussions without getting angry at one another, and often, we agree quite well on many things.  Of course, I am careful.  I have to be careful that I don’t make any broad statements that I know will offend and she is careful with me.  We have practiced a simple virtue called civility.  This civility means that we don’t make assumptions about one another, we don’t try to win the other to our side, but instead, we champion the efforts that each of us are making in our faith walk.  My friend doesn’t try to change the way I believe, she is content with the fact that I do believe.  I feel the same.  At the end of the journey, our politics, methodology, and our differences will ultimately matter very little because it will be our love for Jesus that will be the binding that holds each chapter together. 

I wish for Anne Rice to have that kind of Christian friend.  One who will stand alongside her and be her faith champion, there to cheer her when she works hard for the faith and to give her a hand when she feels like a failure.   More than that, I wish we could all be that kind of Christian friend.