One of the things that I've been struck
by, is how much division there is
in the church.
There are many, many places where
people are not divided by theology
they're actually divided
by gender theory.
Can we have a conversation about
gender and come to some
understanding that maybe we don't need
to be at cross purposes theologically and
that we can reunite as a
church in some ways.
I'm a Lutheran and as we work towards
the 500th anniversary of the Reformation
we're really interested in ecumenism or
calling people to have conversations
back together so that we don't feel so
divided from each other and that we
don't continually divide
the Body of Christ.
My hope is that this will not solve
everything but that if we can
acknowledge that gender is an issue that
divides us and we can have those
conversations and maybe see what
unites us theologically, that we could
come to a place of greater unity.
I mean I have found that talking to
people with very different opinions of
church structure, for example,
when I have brought up the issue of how
people can feel so constrained by their
gender roles because their bodies just
don't physically match their gender,
or the way society tells them that they
must behave, that people are really open
to that because one thing that unites all
Christians is this idea that we must serve
our neighbor; we must take care of our
neighbor. And if there are people being
harmed
by something as obviously human as the
constructs of the way we've made
gender fit on top of a biology that may or
may not fit those gender roles,
people are very interested in trying to
have a conversation that will
better serve each other.
I think that would be a remarkable place
to start looking for Christian unity
is to go outside of the theology and say
oh my gosh maybe we don't have a
theological problem between us.
Maybe what we have is a philosophical
problem that comes from cultural issues
that may or may not need
to really divide us.
