Living and Loving With Differing Views

I came of age during the era of Civil Rights and the Vietnam war. As a young person, I remember the many debates about the justice of the war, the  “rightness” of military service and the appropriateness of using violence to achieve honorable goals.  As a Christian, these debates were much more than theoretical for me — they were a matter of discerning how to be a faithful disciple of Jesus.

My conscience and my reading of scripture led me to be a pacifist.  However, I knew many committed disciples of Jesus who felt OK about the war and/or about serving in the military.  I really struggled with if or how I should relate to them.  Should I embrace them as brothers and sisters in Christ or should I shun them?  Should I try to convince them that they were in error?  How could both positions be right/faithful?

Oddly enough (says the feminist me), the apostle Paul came to my rescue with his counsel to the church in 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 about eating meat offered to idols.  He commends showing care for your brother/sister’s conscience, recognizing that some are not comfortable with eating, while others are.  This helped me to understand that sometimes there is no ONE faithful or right answer… that God speaks to each individual’s conscience and leads them to know what is best and most faithful for them to do.  And so, we must not despise different conclusions or opinions but must honor the faithful intentions of all, because God honors the faithful intentions of all.

The reason I bring this up now is because this has been much on my mind as we talk and listen to one another about how to faithfully respond to the idea of same sex marriage.  Could it be that good and faithful people will have differing convictions that God honors?  If so, then I pray that we can hold one another in the same spirit that Paul commends.