We are Building a Religion

I have had several jobs in the past that are related somehow to the Christian faith, and the issue of personal religious belief is always covered in interviews. I both enjoy and dread this section of the hiring process. I really like to talk with other Christians about my beliefs, but I am always wary of the other members of the discussion being offended by my stance on particular issues. The reactions I’ve managed to view range from appreciative acceptance to immediate disgust to deadpan silence. I will eventually get around to talking about all of these issues, but today I wanted to talk about denominations.

Since the beginning of Christianity, there have been discussions held on what exactly Christians should or should not believe. Some people have come up with truly great ideas, others obviously wrong ideas, and others still ideas that fall in the grey of indecision. Despite these varying ideas, the Christian Church existed in a singular official body until 1054 AD. And those two bodies, the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, existed for several hundred more years before substantive other Christian denominations emerged. I know that some of you might make the case that these churches were oppressive of new ideas at times, and I totally agree. I only mention the history of the church to show that multiple different accepted and theologically sound denominations of the faith have been around for less than half the time Christianity itself has existed.

The Christian Church today has dozens of different denominations across the world. These individual denominations all have their own way of doing things; otherwise, they would be part of some other denomination. The point I would like to make is a rather obvious one, but you may have never considered the full implications of it. Even though there are differences in the views of particular denominations, the belief in Christ is what makes them Christian. Baptists and Methodists go to the same heaven as Presbyterians and Episcopalians if the basic belief in Christ is present. The same God that answers prayers for Catholics works in the lives of the Pentecostals that worship down the road. According to the Bible, we are one church. We are the singular body of Christ. And He is the one savior for us all.

Why then is there such tension between these different denominations? We no longer have the political and legal pressures that Europeans had in the 1500’s. We no longer have wars fought over allegiance to a particular clergy member. And we no longer have to be a part of a particular church to get the right to vote in a colonial American city. We are completely free to choose whichever denomination, or religion to extend the point, that appeals to us. And therein lays the problem. It is subtle, and it is rarely spoken of, but it exists.

When we get to pick our own denomination, we as competitive beings see it as a chance to join a team. We want our team to be the best, and we want other teams to do badly. And now you are angry with me for implying that you want another church to fail. But let’s examine how true that statement really is. If a soul won for Christ is the same regardless of the denomination, shouldn’t we be down in the trenches of the world working shoulder to shoulder with all Christians? But we don’t.

We look at other churches, and all too frequently we don’t look for Christ. We look for the people that might not look the same. We look and see people of a different color. We see that that church doesn’t sing hymns any more, or they sing nothing but hymns. We see the errors of the members of the church. Those people lift their hands in worship. Those people kneel down and recite prayers. Those people use real wine in their communion services. But what we don’t see is the fact that Jesus is the savior of everyone. We don’t see that His love for those people is no different than His love for us.

I don’t want to come across in an accusatory manner. I also don’t want anyone reading this to interpret this post to mean “Aquinas hates denominations and thinks I’m going to Hell if I’m a member of one.” The beauty of the modern Christian church is that we do get a choice of how to worship God. If one church doesn’t suit you, there is probably one that will. But let us not forget that church is ultimately about serving God, and it is not about what we can get out of it. And once modern Christians realize that multiple Biblical and true approaches to worship exist, we can begin to work together. We’re all working towards the same goal anyway.

Romans 12: 4-5- For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.