Factional Warfare Will End the Church
It’s hard to imagine a sorrier situation for many Christian traditions and denominations in the UK right now, and likely in other parts of the Western world too.
We are tearing ourselves apart.
Whilst I don’t prize unity at all costs, particularly the cost of harm to another person or group of people, it pains me to experience, and indeed likely contribute to, the slow demise of the Christian church in the UK.
We might look at the political situation that has been unfolding in recent years as a fair analogy. A dated and broken system that privileges a select few, regardless of political ideology, and is increasingly mistrusted, as each political party tears chunks out of each other and themselves in the bid to hold or grab power. Whatever the political affiliation, they profess a desire for a “better country”, all almost certainly with motives running parallel too.
In the relatively recent local elections that took place across much of the UK, I was almost convinced to spoil my ballot instead of voting for one of the “same old, same old”. A friend of mine would call this “letting the perfect get in the way of the good”, but then if that’s the case, how do things truly ever change if we perpetuate dying systems and factional warfare?
I believe it’s much the same in the church, and feel that as much as I lament the status quo, how great then must the anguish of the Divine be?
Of course, it can never be as simple as: “let’s put our differences aside and come together” – that is likely fictional, PR-friendly and shallow unity that has no solid foundation. Yet can we at least learn to listen and then see the humanity behind the difference?
“They want to deny us our rights, though!” I hear you cry.
“They’re trying to force us to confirm to their way of thinking!” Another may call out.
How then can I ask anyone to lay down their arms and listen to the other?
In part because I’m not asking anything of someone else that I’m not already trying to do myself. A genuine and deep learning journey of stepping back from the domain of the controlling Ego[1] and creating space for sincere listening. My passions and beliefs are fiery, like many of you I’m sure, and from that heat can come the furnace to forge anew.
So hear me: I am not asking that you cast aside what you believe to be true, even if I disagree with you. However, can we use the flames that have been fanned by the likes of social media and political expediency to create a polarised world, and instead use it to craft something new?
As a relative outsider to the discourse that has proceeded the gathering together of hundreds of Bishops in Canterbury recently for the Lambeth Conference, I have noticed many patterns of behaviour from all involved that are identical to factional disputes in other Christian traditions and denominations, but also across the political divide, and in many broader disputes too (i.e., climate change).
These behaviours lead not to listening and understanding, but to further factionalism and polarisation. This in turn only benefits the status quo and the power behind it – not those in the trenches blowing each other up. It is also, of course, then taken in soundbites and snapshots – cementing a narrative that was perhaps never the truth of it all.
It’s at this point that I feel the urge to disclose a whole load of beliefs that I hold so that those who I have historically identified as my “tribe” might still recognise me as one of their own and not cast me out; perhaps because they are concerned that I’m conceding to the “other side”. I feel the need to tell you about my views on any number of important and divisive political, or should I just say human issues that are tearing us apart today – and perhaps even slightly fudge what I truly think to remain acceptable in the eyes of my peers. But I’m not going to; this is not an exercise in Ego validation on my part.
It seems to me that there is very little hope for bodies of believers who cannot find space to listen to one another. Some denominations and traditions have attempted to navigate this through various structured processes, with mixed success, but I fear that the issue is bigger than those sorts of attempts at restorative action.
We remain constantly alert for when a mistake is made, and the demand justice and recompense immediately. Social media amplifies this, with many believing that they are doing the right thing by casting judgement upon an individual, a behaviour, a structure, or a belief, but in fact all they continue to do is polarise the issue at hand.
Could our first instinct be not to condemn, but instead to ask why someone feels/acts/thinks the way they do, and actively listen from a place of generosity. This may feel like a huge ask, but it too is like any behaviour: it can be learned, practiced, and honed.
As Valarie Kaur wrote in See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love:
“Listening does not grant the other side legitimacy. It grants them humanity – and preserves our own.”
My fear is that we continue to play into the hands of the powerful who sit behind the structures – for they are the only ones who benefit from our division. Yes, it is likely that for as long as our species exists that you will find disagreement when you bring more than one of us together, but I do believe there is a better way to navigate this that doesn’t end in the further polarisation, scapegoating, and destruction that occurs in whichever side of a particular view you find yourself on. You may think me naïve, perhaps I am – or perhaps I’m beginning to experience the benefits and speaking from a place of experience.
The church has opportunity, as always, to model this. To demonstrate that unity is not uniformity, and that attentive listening can defuse the ballistic missiles of polarisation. I fear, however, that most traditions and denominations will, as always, fail to model this, therefore securing their own demise.
Factional warfare will end the church, but it doesn’t have to.
[1] In this piece, I refer to Ego as which is found in the psychoanalytic theory: the part of the human personality that is experience as the “self” or “I”.