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By

Paul Coleman

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How far do contradictory convictions go?

September pride service at Leeds Minster.

There are currently 73 comments on a post celebrating a recent Pride Church service in Leeds. Five remain visible. The rest have been hidden because they were homophobic, judgemental or simply unpleasant. Almost all came from people identifying themselves as Christians.

And I’m struggling with it. I’m aware that I’m writing as an ally. These comments aren’t attacking my sexuality or gender identity, and I don’t want to claim hurt that isn’t mine. But I also can’t simply shrug it off. Part of my ADHD seems to be a fairly fierce sensitivity to injustice, combined with an empathy that sometimes makes other people’s hurt very difficult to put down. I can hide a comment. I can’t quite hide from the knowledge that somebody thought it was an appropriate thing to say, particularly when they said it in the name of Jesus.

It has left me thinking again about what Methodists often call living with “contradictory convictions”. I think we have to be able to disagree. I don’t expect everyone I worship alongside to share my theology or my understanding of the Bible. There are plenty of things I believe differently about now than I did twenty years ago, so I probably ought to leave room for the possibility that I’m wrong about some things now as well.

But how far does that go? For me, there has to be a limit when someone’s theology is actively harming other people. When it makes church somewhere people are frightened to enter. When it convinces people that there is something fundamentally wrong with them. When people leave because being part of church has simply become too costly. And, at its worst, when rejection in the name of God contributes to despair or self-harm.

At that point I struggle to describe what is happening as simply two Christians holding different theological opinions. We also have to ask what our theology actually does. Who does it enable to encounter God? Who gets to belong? Who quietly disappears?

I spend time with LGBTQ+ Christians who love God, pray, worship, serve their communities and are trying, like the rest of us, to work out what following Jesus looks like. Some have already been badly hurt by churches. Some are cautiously finding their way back. Then Christians arrive under a post celebrating their worship to tell them that they are wrong, and I find myself wondering what we think we are achieving.

I know some Christians will disagree with me about sexuality, gender and Scripture. I can live with disagreement. What I find much harder to live with is harm being done in the name of Jesus and then dismissed as simply a matter of contradictory convictions.

If I get this wrong, I would sooner be judged for including someone than discover that I had excluded someone Jesus was trying to welcome.

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Responses to “How far do contradictory convictions go?”

  1. Carolyn Knight

    Thank you for this. I am a Christian

    Reply
  2. Worsfold Joyce

    Being human is about so much more than our sexuality and gender. God is love. And love, as Jesus showed us, is about care, compassion, understanding and sharing the joy of this amazing planet. He told us that judging others is wrong.

    Reply
  3. Mr BARRINS

    This of course works both ways you must understand that some people interpret Christianity from a different standpoint..It is a true fact that if you follow the teachings of true Christianity you are going to run into conflicting views.. This might unsettle you but, in early times much more difficult St Paul and many other Christians.. ultimately gave their lives for their believe. We indeed must agree to disagree but ultimately recognise that Christianity does come with conditions attached. If we don’t like that we are free to reject it..But please don’t insult those who retain their core beliefs..Who are you to say they are wrong..

    Reply
    1. Paul Coleman

      Christians interpret scripture and Christianity differently. We always have done, and some of the disagreements in the early church were pretty substantial. So I don’t have a problem with people reaching different conclusions from me.

      Where I become uncomfortable is when one interpretation is described as “true Christianity”, as though the rest of us are simply rejecting what Christianity obviously teaches. We are all interpreting scripture, bringing different traditions, experiences and assumptions to it, and sometimes reaching very different conclusions.

      I also think there is an important distinction between holding a belief and what we do with it. I want this blog, and other spaces I’m responsible for, to be places where people can disagree and where difficult conversations can happen. But I also have safeguarding responsibilities, and I draw the line where language or behaviour has the potential to cause harm, particularly to people who have already experienced exclusion or harm within the church.

      That doesn’t mean everyone has to agree with me, and it certainly doesn’t mean difficult theological questions can’t be discussed. It does mean that saying something is a sincerely held Christian belief doesn’t automatically mean it has to be given a platform, regardless of its effect on other people.

      You ask, “Who are you to say they are wrong?” I think that question has to apply to all of us. If we are making claims about somebody else’s life, relationships or place within the church, then surely the theology behind those claims must also be open to questioning.

      For me, that is where the boundary lies. We can disagree about theology. But creating a safe space sometimes means saying that particular ways of expressing those beliefs aren’t acceptable when they risk causing harm.

      Reply
  4. When do we lose sight of the people behind the debate? – Faithfully Akward

    […] day of each other, have dealt with marginalisation in the church from rather different directions. How far do contradictory convictions go? grew out of conversations around LGBTQ+ people, Pride Church and the limits of theological […]

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