Most of the causes for the division between Christians come from humans and their interpretations of Jesus' words and try to force them on others.
The problem is... it isn't even that simple. Because you can't always say "Oh, that's your interpretation and that's fine for you." Otherwise Paul wouldn't have gotten so stroppy about the fellows who said that you couldn't be a Christian unless you were circumcised -- and he was very eloquent about how wrong they were. There is such a thing as truth, and there are such things as heresies. There a need for a balance between both extremes, between a relaxed attitude towards differing interpretations, and a strong attitude towards things that are Just Plain Wrong. And of course, the mess arises because we can't all agree on where the borders are. Though I would think that the Creeds are a good model for That Which Is Important For Salvation, and everything else, while still important, isn't worth fighting over.
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Date: 2004-11-16 02:43 am (UTC)The problem is... it isn't even that simple. Because you can't always say "Oh, that's your interpretation and that's fine for you." Otherwise Paul wouldn't have gotten so stroppy about the fellows who said that you couldn't be a Christian unless you were circumcised -- and he was very eloquent about how wrong they were. There is such a thing as truth, and there are such things as heresies. There a need for a balance between both extremes, between a relaxed attitude towards differing interpretations, and a strong attitude towards things that are Just Plain Wrong. And of course, the mess arises because we can't all agree on where the borders are. Though I would think that the Creeds are a good model for That Which Is Important For Salvation, and everything else, while still important, isn't worth fighting over.