In 1974, Pol Pot and his Communist Khmer Rouge took power in the Asian nation of Cambodia. For the next 4 years this regime built a reputation as one of the most ruthless in history. During this time, more than 1.5 million men, women and children were killed by their own government simply because they didn't live up to its standards. Most of them were well-educated, city-dwelling members of the middle and upper class (ironically Pol Pot himself fell into this category). Does that sound familiar? I'm not talking about the Holocost, although that would certainly fit this analogy as well. Take a closer look at the church. It's happening among Christians, people who are supposed to love each other unconditionally! Denominations, while not inherently bad (although there are some, such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka Mormons, that are rightly deemed heretics and cults), are often the source of the struggle. A leader of one denomination says something damaging or accusatory about a leader of another denomination and the mudslinging begins. It also happens in individual church congregations. A deacon doesn't like the way that the pastor is running things and begins a movement to have him removed. People quickly take sides and when the dust settles those who didn't get their way have left causing a split. The church that I grew up in experienced one of these and, as is usually the case, it has taken many years for it to recover. All the while the world looks on and wonders why we can't seem to get along with each other. Mahatma Ghandi summed up this thinking perfectly when he said, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians." For too long we have been engaged in, what Relient K calls in their song "Down In Flames", a 'Christian civil war' and it is severely damaging our witness to the world. The sad thing about a war is that there are always casualties. Usually these casualties are the reputations of those involved. As their character is questioned, these leaders lose their audience and influence but there is a more important issue at stake. The apostle Paul, referring to a quote from the prophet Isaiah, wrote that "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." Did you get that? Do you understand the implications? God looks like a fool to the world because of our actions! Our actions are driving people from knowing how loving, forgiving and redeeming our God is! As I have around the world I have seen what can happen when the church stops worrying about individual numbers and, as one body, starts pursuing the universal heart of man, a heart that yearns for something more than what it has been given. A heart that desperately needs to be restored into a right relationship with God.
Over the weekend my team and I were able to get a closer look at era of the Khmer Rouge, the darkest time in the history of the Cambodian people. The Cheong Ek Genocidal Center outside of Phnom Penh stands as a reminder of what can happen when a misguided and misapplied ideology rules the land unchecked. It is a reminder that the enemy isn't within, it's without. During a conference at my alma mater, Union University, several years ago Dr. Ed Stetzer emphasized that "there are life and death issues worth fighting for. There are hills worth dying on. Truth should indeed come before friendship but Scripture condemns a contentious spirit, promotes unity in the body of Christ and refuses to make every disagreement a test of orthodoxy. If we died on every hill there will be none left to proclaim the Gospel to a lost world…Our partnership for the Gospel must trump our differing opinions that we hold within our confessional orthodoxy." I couldn't have said it any better myself. There are certain things that are worth fighting for, namely the inerrancy and truth of Scripture, the person of Christ, his commands and ordinances, the nature of the Godhead, and the reason for and method of salvation. That's the main course, the rest are just side items and not everybody is going to agree on how they fit together. The great thing is that we don't have to make them fit perfectly in every instance. It's ok to agree to disagree on certain issues. Diversity is what makes the body of Christ so beautiful and we seem to have forgotten that. It's time to stop the spiritual genocide.
