Dear Church,

I'm tired.  I'm very, very tired of the "liberal vs conservative" conversation.  I'm tired of it in politics.  I'm extremely tired of it in the church.

I sit in the same row as people Sunday after Sunday with people who don't hold the same views as I do.  We don't always read the Bible and see the same words.  We don't always hear a song/hymn and get the same meaning from it.  We don't think about certain "hot topics" the same way.  Yet I sit in church every week with people who don't hold the same ideas or thoughts and we still worship the same Jesus and the same God.  I am friends with Christians who hold differing views than I do, yet that doesn't make my beliefs or their beliefs any less real.  Sure, it will cause discord when we discuss the issues but really, it doesn't matter.

See, I care more about the heart of a person than I do about their politics.  Politics can be a statement of the heart but it doesn't tell the full story.  The full story comes about in conversation, in relationship, when I sit beside someone on Sunday morning and witness the tears of conviction, the sighs of acknowledgement, the silence of the weight of God speaking to them.  The full story comes when I take the time to look beyond the label and listen, really listen.  Liberal or conservative, doesn't really matter when I start looking at the heart of a person, it's just a category.

You can come up and ask me what I think about gay marriage, abortion, the Apostle's Creed, heaven and hell, Noah and the Ark, Adam and Eve, Paul's instructions to Timothy or any of it.  I'll tell you what I think and you can put me in a category...or you can look at my heart, really listen to my words and see the person God has created, the person God has given a mind and the power of discernment, a person who is fallible, a person who knows that God is big, so much bigger than I can possibly imagine that I don't really have a clue sometimes.  You can label me but why?

Church, I don't think that liberals or conservatives alone are the reason people are walking away from you.  I believe it's because we insist on the labels, we insist on pointing the fingers at others and aren't willing to accept our own part in the mess that is walking by faith.  I wonder what would happen, if we would put those labels and categories aside, I wonder what would happen if we would start listening and then talking.  I wonder what we, Church, would look like if we were willing to drop the labels and work together.  I wonder...

Just thinking,
Brittany