disagreement

Lisa Robinson from Reclaiming the Mind Ministries writes:

I probably don’t need to explain what knee-jerk theology is. We all know it and we all do it, to varying degrees. Somebody makes a comment or pontification on some doctrinal point or passage in Scripture that is an affront to how we’ve understood it. The knee-jerk response instantly rebuts, refutes and refuses to acknowledge any of the merits. After all, if that person saw things as we see it, they wouldn’t hold that position, right?

But the reality is there is no such thing as two truths at the same time. Somebody is missing it. Somebody is wrong. I do believe in our human nature, we most likely will assign that blame on the other person and respond accordingly. But another reality is…we could be wrong.

So how do we overcome the knee-jerk reaction and treat each dissent fairly, objectively and with truth as the end goal. Here is a quick list that I think might help.

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Ten Steps to Avoiding Knee-Jerk Theology Read it!

Five times, I've almost skipped over this short discussion, and just made #42 out of the next. Five times I've been brought back to the fact that a disciple needs to hear this... needs to know this can happen. Sometimes, some people are going to just stop loving you. Sometimes it's going to be because you've become unlovely, and we have to face that fact, but sometimes it's because they can't accept that you're right and they're wrong. Always, it hurts.

Disagreeing with someone you love over something that's important to you is the hardest thing. It's often the thing that causes friction in families and churches. If we, as Christians, can learn how to disagree in love, we can learn from those disagreements. We need to learn that there's a big, important difference between 'unity' and 'uniformity.' We are called to unity -- not uniformity. That means we are going to disagree, and that's a good thing!

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