It makes me so angry...

Does anyone else think it's is crazy and totally, ridiculously self-indulgent how much we Christians spend our time arguing and telling each other what we can't be and can't do when there are so many out there in desperate need.

I mean, seriously - what is it going to matter to someone who is desperate to escape drugs, abuse, poverty, depression, disease, despair… what we think about:

whether women are 'allowed to be in ministry', or
what a woman's 'place' is, or
what the exact definition of evangelical/new calvinism/blah blah is
etc etc

It's all crap really.

What do we tell someone who is at the end of themselves, desperate for love and for Jesus?
"Welcome to the fold - now here's a list of rules for you to learn. Here's a bunch of lines you cannot cross, unless you want us all to hate you…"

Seriously?

If our gospel doesn't work for the poor, the desperate, the lost, then it doesn't work. Then it's not the gospel of Jesus.

I don't care how convinced you are that you're right about your theological bent, if you are not bringing freedom and hope to the neediest in this world, then you're missing the point and your words are useless.

People already have enough chains on their ankles, enough people telling them who they can't be.

Jesus was in the business of setting people free.

Why is the Church so bent on keeping people in their place?

We are all right, and we are all wrong

I struggle to identify with any particular theological views or 'camps', and while I find reading all the different blogs and articles fascinating and thought provoking for a while, inevitably I reach the same reaction - I feel like throwing my ipad across the room in dispair.

Egalitarian, complimentarian, charismatic, evangelical, new Calvinism, pro-Driscolls and Driscoll is the devil-ites....

Whatever it is, if I find one point I agree with, I feel like I'm not free to just take that point as it is. I feel like I have to take the whole manifesto or nothing. And if I want to disagree with one point, all I can find is an opposing point of view that wants to bring me to 'their side' - again, you're either with us, or you're against us.

Why do we feel the need to pick a defined camp to pitch our tent in? 

Can't we recognise that in some ways we are all right and in many ways we are all wrong?

We need each other and each other's views, because each of us just has one tiny part of the truth, that when brought together begins to outline some semblance of the whole. We as the body, in unity, create a still imperfect but increasingly accurate and powerful sketch of Jesus himself.

And I disagree that to combat an erroneous extreme we need to be just as loud, combative or extreme ourselves. All that does is keep the pendulum swinging with increasing momentum. It doesn't restore balance except perhaps for that fleeting moment as the pendulum passes the middle ground before powering through to the other side.

That's why, while I agree with some feminist points, I cannot agree that feminism is the way to combat oppression and discrimination. And why, while I agree with some points of both complimentarianism and egalitarianism, I cannot agree that either of them have the whole answer or that we should define ourselves as either/or. And why, while agree with some points of many different theological movements, I cannot agree to label anyone with anything more narrowly defined than Christian. 

I believe we can combat extremism, we can restore balance, we can create wholeness by seeking that in ourselves and encouraging it in others. Without labels. With unity. With freedom.