Samuel Clear, a 28 year old from Australia, is walking an 18 month pilgrimage across the planet inviting people to join him in praying for the unity of all Christians. Naming the pilgrimage, Walk4One, Sam sold everything he owned to personally fund the journey, and left Australia on December 14, 2006. This began his 29,000km, 564 day, worldwide journey, which will include 18,000kms travelled on foot. Sam is soon to arrive in the US. To read about Sam’s journey, have a look at www.ymt.com.au/walk4one

We will never have One Mind according to Revelations 43:15 (just kidding - I made that number up).

Seriously though, it is interesting to think of the time of the Apostles and how the early church in Acts didn't have "one mind" regarding the Gentiles, Grace, and the Law (Galatians).

I wonder if "One Mind" might have been another word for Tolerance.

EI.

Barbara,

Thanks for the input. You are correct that we (Christians) probably won't have this unity that we are commanded to have until the 2nd coming.

Yes it does matter however i think there
should be some diversity even in religion and
other cultures did Jesus say he was a
denomination i cannot find any reference
to christ having a denomination

I am not sure if I want diversity for the sake of diversity, but I don't want to quash diversity either. The thing here is allowing for difference approaches. Allowing for other approaches enables a movement to adapt to better/newer understandings and situations. Each sucessful advance of Christianity did this, rather than adhering to a static model and theology. A lot of groups try to go back to a mythical pure faith, but in reality each time is a melding of elements of the perceived pure faith and the cultural situation the group has found itself in.

In regards to your denominational comment, no Jesus wasn't part of any denomination, as they were creations after his time. I do think they are useful in that they are collections of like-minded Christians. The tricky part if intra-denominational relationships. How do you get the Disciples of Christ to play nice with Lutherans? How do you get the Catholics to think that people in the Assemblies of God are genuine Christians? What is a genuine Christian anyway? Can we make that call? Should we? How "wrong" can a person be and still be a Christian? I like to think of denominations as Christian "think-tanks" akin to political think-tanks.

It can be done. Hank thinks that I have huge errors in doctrine, and I think that he does as well. We disagree and think that the other is actually wrong. Yet, we tolerate and love one another. Thats the real definition of tolerance. It is not accepting other people's point of view as valid, but in allowing for people to be wrong without excluding them. Of course everyone is going to think that they are right and have correct doctrine - otherwise they would think another way, the way they think is correct.

To sum up diversity is the existence of difference and it is good because it allows for better ways to view something. Tolerance is the allowance of diversity and it is good for the same reason.


Sorry this only partially addressed your comment Barbara and half readdressed my own post.

I think this is an excellent set of questions... in the brief time I have, let me throw out some ideas.

1. Why, exactly, do we value tolerance?  Is perhaps "tolerance" a very fluid word, depending on where we stand?  At a recent conference, I heard a man say, "Claiming that Jesus is the door may sound intolerant, but it's actually very inclusive, because the door is wide open to any who wish to enter."  Now, I know that an argument can be made for the intolerance of this statement, but that is precisely my point... tolerance is a matter of perspective.  I've had several conversations with supposedly "tolerant" individuals who, because they did not agree with my views, castigated me.  Tolerant?  Not very.  It seems to me that this has become more of a buzz word than anything.  Perhaps we can find a more useful category?

2.  As for diversity: I think one of the great failings of the modernist church (as evidenced on Rose's post) is the assumption that unity is equated with homogeneity.  To look at an example from scripture (borrowed from Greg Boyd), Matthew was a tax collector.  Simon was a Zealot.  These two clearly had starkly opposing political positions, yet Jesus called them both to be followers.  He demanded unity, but not necessarily always agreement.  Paul and Jesus both call us to consider others better than ourselves, and to seek unity chiefly, but the do not call us to agree always.  I value difference in culture, thinking, theology, worship, etc. so long as it is expressed through love and within the context of the catholic Church.  Don't I have a responsibility to love my brothers and sisters, to worship with them and to spread the kingdom with them regardless of how nearly we see eye-to-eye?

Yes it does matter however i think there
should be some diversity even in religion and
other cultures did Jesus say he was a
denomination i cannot find any reference
to christ having a denomination also here
is another question would christ have been
white or coloured being a jew he would
have been coloured and as for unity we will
never get unity until we as humans stop
being greedy and wanting to keep up
with the joneses or your next door neighbours
and that is why there is war because people
want more we have not learnt much and i
expect this is why the Uniting Church calls
itself Uniting because they are not united
either so i feel that the answer to your
question is that we will never really know
until we meet Christ and God in heaven and
then we won't need to ask the question we
will have our answer. Barbara Mackay