THE PERIL OF HAVING NOTHING
TO DO WITH ANYONE ELSE

There is a logical dilemma from which you may be able to extricate those of us known as Churches of Christ. We claim to be a unity people, a part of the so-called Restoration Movement, which was an effort to unite the Christians in all the sects. Yet we have become a very exclusive people, having little or nothing to do with our religious neighbors in anything religious. We may watch TV with them, garden with them, work with them in the PTA, and our kids and their kids may even date, with or without our highest approval. But we will not go to their church except for funerals and weddings, even if we expect them to come to ours now and again, maybe.

Their preachers and our preachers have no contact, not even to pray together. It is rare when any of our preachers associate with theirs in the ministerial alliance. Our churches have nothing to do with theirs, whether in cooperative efforts in serving needy people, preaching the gospel, celebrating Easter or Thanksgiving, or even in community projects. In spite of all the opportunities for meaningful contact, their youth and ours are as separated as if they lived in different parts of the world. When our exclusivism is at its worst, we do not even consider others as Christians and we presume to be “the true church” to the exclusion of all others. This of course turns folk off, and they have learned not to expect any response from us unless it is something negative. We are dumped in with the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other isolated sects. We therefore are not on the mailing lists of those who make up “the Christian world” around us.

But the Mormons and the Witnesses are not part of a unity heritage. By virtue of our reason-to-be we are to be a cooperative people, a church that reaches out to others in spite of theological differences, for how else can there be a serious plea for unity? That is the logical dilemma: How can we be a unity people when we will have nothing to do with anyone else? There is peril in the logic, so I solicit your help. Does not something have to give? Either we must concede that we are not unitists after all, but a narrow, exclusivistic people that make extravagant claims about their identity. Or we must join the Christian world and become part of the answer to a lot of problems facing the believing community around the world. There is no way for unitists to be separatists, for the terms are mutually exclusive.

In facing up to the logic of our dilemma, it may help to consider that there is a fallacy in our thinking that is responsible for a lot of this. The fallacy is this: If we associate or enjoy fellowship with others, we are approving or endorsing things we believe to be wrong. For example, if we cooperate with Baptists and Roman Catholics in a drug-abuse program, then we are “having fellowship,” as our folk quaintly put it, with all the errors we have ever attributed to such folk. This is strange logic, so strange that we dare not try to apply it to other areas of our life, not even to our association with each other, for what two people among us agree on every single point of doctrine? Who among us is completely free of error?

The truth is that this is nothing more than a debilitating, stupid habit, a foolish error in long division. It is silly to conclude that if we join in with others in feeding the poor of the world or in publishing the Bible that we are endorsing their sins, assuming that their sins are greater than ours, which may also be perilous.

There is nothing either in our history or in the Scriptures that will support our exclusivism. The very first Church of Christ in the Campbell movement, Brush Run in Old Virginia, was a member of a Baptist association of churches. Even as they joined they made it clear that they differed on some things and that they would be a Church of Christ and not a Baptist church. Why should we not do likewise, doing our own thing in our own way, and yet doing things with others in areas where we all agree? And let’s face it: we all agree far more than we disagree. We can work together in unity on most things. Are we going to continue to be duped by the old fallacy that if we cannot work together in some areas we cannot work together in anything?

When our people venture forth and do something constructive with others it causes them to grow a foot taller. At my side is a bulletin from the Southern Hills Church of Christ in Tulsa, in which one of our preachers tells of his experience on the sea of Galilee. He was with fifty others from many denominations, including three Baptist preachers. He describes it as a “marvelous spiritual fellowship,” and relates how they sang, laughed, and cried together. They asked him to give a devotional, which was received with great appreciation.

In retrospect he writes this of the experience: “If for these eleven days we could lay aside our denominational differences and unite our spirits around the central factors of Christianity, why can’t we do so from now on?”

He goes on to say: “We have in the past erected walls of isolation between us that have marked off denominational lines. God did not build these walls. We did! They are stupid and senseless, for they have created competing denominations instead of unified disciples. The Lord prayed for unity of his disciples (John 17), while we have built barriers of division. I appeal to you for us not only to get back to the God of the Word, but the Word of God. Let us obey His will, and lay aside these senseless doctrinal issues that estrange us.”

There is grave peril in our not heeding our brother’s plea, the peril of becoming a negative, nonproductive, isolated sect that is encased in a straightjacket of isolationism. There is also the peril of ignoring the Lord’s prayer for the unity of all believers, assuming that the Father either will not or cannot respond to the prayer of His own son. There is also the peril of further dehumanizing our people, denying them of such normal Christian experiences as described by our brother on the sea of Galilee. Thank God that water sometimes makes that much difference!

What did our brother lose in that experience. Nothing. He rather gained a great deal. What compromise did he make with any error held by those he was with? None at all. He was doing something very normal for a believer: enjoying the sweet fellowship of other believers. This can and will become more common as we assert our liberty in Jesus and no longer allow ourselves to be victimized by the keepers of the party.

We have our mandate from Scripture: Wherefore receive one another even as I have received you. (Rom. 15:7) - the Editor