From Kansas-
More and more, we live in a world of extremes. It is a place where one faction of people will oftentimes rebuke and reject another faction because they don’t hold the same position and social views. This has created a toxic culture with an all or nothing approach to many things. It is a culture that if left unchecked, will ultimately lead to the downfall of our society.
When Christians engage in such behavior it becomes a form of idolatry because it makes a political or theological agenda the thing that decides whether or not another group is worthy to be seen with us. It is an idolatry that assumes that because a church takes a contrary position on a complex issue from the one my church takes, then they obviously do not understand the will of God and are therefore not Christian. It is a position that rebukes one community of Christians’ form of offering of worship and prayer to God because it is not like my own church’s worship and prayer. The idolatry of factionalism in the church leaves no room for the Holy Spirit to move among God’s people and open new possibilities for an in breaking of the Kingdom of God among us. It leaves no room for the grace and generosity of God.
When Christians engage in such factionalism against other Christians, not only do they engage in idolatry, but they reject Jesus’ most earnest prayer that they all may be one in him. Most tragic of all is that we become a sad example to the world of a people who have rejected God’s invitation to the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ for the same idolatrous factionalism that is part of the kingdoms of this world. When our four churches gathered this week, we may not have changed the world in any significant way. But we did proclaim to each other and to anyone else who may have witnessed us that God’s Kingdom is bigger than any of our denominations, political agendas or doctrines.
More here-
http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/2011/jul/29/kingdom-god-bigger-my-idolatry/
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