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Just stop it!

*Raw, quick thoughts, just thrown up here, at my peril, with very little pondering.
Wayback machine or other internet tools used to dig up dirt on people, I'll probably edit this as I have better formed thoughts on the matter. Please don't hold this rant against me. It needed to get out there in order to spur further thought*

Division. No, not lists of the dreaded mathematical function represented by ÷

I'm talking polarization. 

No, that buzzword has become too familiar. 

I'm talking cleavage. 

Not breaking up (that can be a thoughtful act) but breaking off. Casting out. 

The world is facing polycrises: climate change, species loss and natural disasters are bad enough without us adding wars and racism and systemic injustice to it all. 

Christians, if we are to have any hope of faithfully representing the God we claim to obey, it is high time we put our differences aside. 

Those of you who are purity minded, okay, you probably have a point. God's holiness does demand something of us. But for the most part, you have not successfully shared that perspective in a way that has led people to find shalom. 

Maybe what we need right is to put aside all our differences. Stop with the heretic hunting. Stop with the purity tests. Stop arguing about correct doctrine. Even if that means accepting some yahoos who you don't think should get to claim the name of Jesus. We can work on harmful rhetoric later. Right now the biggest threat is the harmful rhetoric of othering.

We need to stop throwing people out on their ear. We need to model Jesus' radical love that FIRST of all says you are loved and accepted. Only after that is clear do we have the right to say, "listen, there are some things you do or say that do not lead to your flourishing nor the flourishing of those around you." But that needs to be said in the context of walking together, and mutual correction, not finger pointing and boundary policing.

Unity − but not uniformity − needs to come first.

 If we can't live a capacity to get along despite differences, I think we have failed in our mission.

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