Agree to Disagree
I’ve noticed something recently. There is somewhat of a phenomenon on Twitter among some of the people I follow, in which they post an update which almost immediately causes several of their followers to stop following them. This even happened to my friend* Jon on his Facebook (you can read about that here).
It seems that many people cannot disagree with someone, without then disassociating themselves from those with whom they disagree. I see this occurring more among people who claim to be Christians, which makes this even more alarming.
Have our interactions on the internet turned us into the kids on the playground who get mad and say “I’m not your friend anymore!”, in some immature attempt at comeuppance?
I think the roots of this attitude extend much farther past the online world. I’ve seen too many people leaving churches, churches firing pastors, or churches splitting in much the same way. But it never seems to be an issue of outright heresy or theological inaccuracy, it is usually a difference of opinion.
I’m not saying that we should compromise our convictions. But, each one of us is responsible for our own life, and it is not our job to project our convictions on others. And even if ‘our’ way is the right way, showing disrespect to the ones with whom we don’t see eye-to-eye us destroys our ability to influence them positively. We can’t convict people of their wrongs, but our lives can reflect an example for them to follow.
Where does this leave us? The things keeping us at odds with one another are affecting our ability to positively impact the world around us. We’ve got to get over ourselves, love one another through our disagreements, and focus on what we can agree on: we have a message the world needs to hear. It will be a lot easier to get that message out, if we can do it together.
[*Friend in the facebook sense. I don't know Jon personally, but would totally be his friend in real life too.]
I’m a *friend* of Jon’s too and saw your link in his comments. I’d love to sit down and really chat about this. We seem to have this prevalent mindset that we have to agree on all things. I am a Christian who has many friend who are Christians. Some are conservative; some liberal. Some are Republicans; some Democrats. Some are in favor of health care rform; some adamantly opposed. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. We are never going to move forward as a family, community, nation, etc if we don’t learn to listen, respect each other, and extend grace to one another. And, believing that, I continue to need to hear it
preach it!
I love to listen and follow people with differing views. After all, who knows it all anyway? The , er…older…er I get the more I realize I am less sure of what I “know” and its actually freeing. Thanks for your thoughts and letting me know about you blog.
Once someone decides that their opinion is fact and will no longer listen to anyone else they become crippled in their mind. This is a horrible handicap that not only is a problem with Christians, but also with cultures and end even nations. Pride is at the bottom of this, we don’t have to judge people because we know all about them by the way they act.
Thanks for that.