Opinions (everybody's got one)

There are times in life when we have an opportunity to share our thoughts and opinions with others. Sometimes, these opportunities create hard feelings because one person has a vastly different opinion that others, and no one likes to be wrong (especially our spouses...works for either gender). The church (universal) has gone out of its way to alleviate discontent and the differing of opinions by simply refusing to acknowledge any differences at all. They may give them "lip-service", but in the end, the church by-and-large ignores them in the name of unity.

Christ, in His lengthy prayer to the Father in John 17, prays that the church be unified. Obviously this is important to God, and so it should be important to us. But at what cost? Where do we draw the line? Many Christians and non-Christians fail to see the difference between the LDS members and Protestants. Many Protestants have tried to work more closely with the Roman Catholics. The Roman Catholics have been trying to patch things up with the Eastern Orthodox Church. These are all noble endeavors, but at some point we need to talk about the things that separate us, and make sure that those outside of the Creeds are correctly labelled "heretical" and not be included in the body of Christ. This is a very closed-minded stance to take in today's pluralistic and relativistic age, but it is one that must be done, for the SAKE of unity! If unity means getting rid of all labels and understanding, then there is no unity, only equal opinions. No truth, no right or wrong, just post-modern 'seeking'.

Inside the Protestant church, we have many denominations. Even inside the Baptist tradition, there are many different families that do not agree on many things. Our church (HCRBC) is different from most others in the area. I have been told by many that our church won't work because we aren't doing certain things that churches MUST have (like a youth pastor). We don't have children's church, so our children will stay with the parents during the service. Again, we've been told, people won't come, they don't want to be in a church where there are "a million kids" running around. So much for parenting.

Regardless of opinions, we all need to focus in on Christ. If we do that earnestly, we can understand each other, while still disagreeing, but in a loving and respectful fashion.