GUEST COMMENTARY: Christian Unity Is Never Easy, But Is Always Necessary

c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The work of Christian unity is never easy, but it is most fulfilling. We do this work because the Gospels compel us to. “The glory that you have given me I have given them,” Jesus says in John 17:22, “so that they may be one, as we are one.” […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The work of Christian unity is never easy, but it is most fulfilling. We do this work because the Gospels compel us to. “The glory that you have given me I have given them,” Jesus says in John 17:22, “so that they may be one, as we are one.”

The work of division and destruction of the Body of Christ, meanwhile, is much easier and has been with us since the decades just after Jesus walked among us. St. Paul’s bemoaned the “jealously and quarreling” among the followers of Christ.


Recently a major newspaper described the National Council of Churches (NCC) and the Institute of Religion and Democracy (IRD) as “two influential Christian nonprofit organizations.” The similarity ends there, though I would dispute just how influential the IRD is.

The NCC exists to promote Christian unity. It was born in the 1950s and fueled by the ecumenical movement of the 1960s, a movement I am proud to say is alive and well. In my seven years as the NCC’s general secretary, I have seen Baptists working with Greek Orthodox on matters important to Jesus, and Methodists and Quakers collaborating on a Sunday School curriculum. It’s all quite inspiring.

Our work is often done well behind the scenes, but it is never done in secret. The business and debates conducted by delegates from our member churches is done in the light of day, open to anyone. That work is never easy, but it shows the care and concern that Christians have for the work they do together.

The NCC is, and always has been, accountable to its member denominations. Every program area, every initiative, statement or policy has been based on the decisions of our member communions.

The IRD is sometimes called a Washington-based “Christian think-tank.” It is more actually a front for wealthy neo-conservatives bent on silencing the prophetic voice of mainstream Christians and progressive evangelicals.

Although ecumenism is alive and well, I’m also forced to admit it has become more difficult. American culture has become fractured, divided and split along many lines _ political, racial and economic. There are numerous divides in our country, and Christianity is no exception.

That work of division within some of the member communions of the NCC has been the sole driving force of the IRD. Under the misleading banner of “renewal,” the IRD has openly sought to divide, splinter and fracture our member communions. They are seeking to do the same to the NCC. They are essentially doing what St. Paul warns against when he likens Christ’s church to a human body where one part cannot say to another, “I have no need of you.”


The NCC has had its critics over the years. But then, so did the prophet Amos. So did Jesus, for that matter. America’s ability to contend with those who disagree has been one of the strengths of our democracy. I received a lot of on-the-job training in that area as a six-term member of Congress from Pennsylvania.

Faith and politics have always been a balancing act for me. As an ordained United Methodist minister and a human being, I confess to not always being successful at that balance. But I have certainly worked hard at being faithful to good news of Jesus, which is any Christian’s primary duty.

Some of our critics would have you believe the NCC is one of the divisive forces in American Christianity. We have programs on unity, peace, environmental justice, racism, poverty, pluralism, Christian education and leadership. To be sure, dealing with these issues from Jesus’ point of view upsets those who have a vested interest in betraying the common good. But in spite of their criticism, we are committed to keep working through each of those areas to build up God’s kingdom.

There is a sickness in American society today that wants to tear down what God has built up, to divide people of difference who have found ways to celebrate diversity, to narrowly define Christianity against the work done for decades to find and proclaim the “wideness in God’s mercy.”

We do the work that God has given us to do. Our 35 member communions and their 45 million faithful Christians have not lost the central focus of our work. We have the words of Jesus to guide us, his actions to inspire us, his prayer that we all “may be one” move us forward.

That’s an agenda the NCC can and does proclaim.

(The Rev. Bob Edgar is general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA and author of “Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right.”)


KRE/LF END EDGAR

Editors: A photo of Bob Edgar is available on the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

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