Brayden Rush<\/a> · Contributing Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt is no secret that Christians are split in many ways on different issues. The more significant theological divides have led to Christians dividing into Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox Christians, while less significant but still prominent issues have created several Protestant denominations as well disagreements among Catholics and Orthodox Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One such disagreement among Christians can be found right here in Grove City College. The statement of faith controversy highlights the struggle for Christians to agree on issues big and small despite being unified by the same fundamental belief in the Christian God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The need to be unified on the fundamental tenets of Christianity is accepted by any Christian serious about their faith. That need for unity, however, does not seem as important to some Christians when it comes to theological ideas of lesser importance or certain social and political issues like gay marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not my intention to discuss the historical events that have led to splits in the church. I am much more interested in the effects our American culture has on sustaining these divisions in the church and preventing greater unity among Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our culture has become increasingly secular over the last century. Our public schools, governments and popular culture have been divorced from the Christian tradition. Academia has also become quite secular, which has influenced the thinking of most people living in the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The empirical approach to obtaining knowledge is treated as the default, and in some cases, the only way of discovering truth. Belief requires evidence, and as David Hume once said, \u201cA wise man \u2026 proportions his belief to the evidence.\u201d The more evidence a claim has for it, and the less against it, the more confident we can be in holding that belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a perfectly acceptable way to obtain knowledge about the world we live in. The impact, however, that this way of thinking has on Christians in America is that we are examining the same text and finding parts of Scripture as evidence to back up our competing claims and deeming our evidence sufficient to hold the beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, who is right on these issues we disagree on? One way to answer that question is to turn to church officials and the teachings of the church fathers. Because of liberalism\u2019s specific emphasis on individualism and freedom of thought, this is not so easy for us Americans to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Americans are not shy about telling others that they are wrong and even less shy about arguing with expert opinion, so long as they think they have the evidence on their side. It seems American Christians are bold enough to disagree with church authority and split off rather than submitting their own faculties of thought to the church teachings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not to say that Christians need to think the same on every issue or that Western civilization is at fault for there being so many denominations. Our fallen nature makes it so we cannot have all the right answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am saying the influences of secularism and liberalism in Western society has caused a division among Christians where there shouldn\u2019t be. Issues like abortion or gay marriage shouldn\u2019t be controversial issues for Christians. A statement of faith affirming that God created two genders shouldn\u2019t cause controversy at a Christian school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is important that Christians continue to discuss and debate the issues we disagree on. I also think we need to rely less on examining the evidence for ourselves and deciding to commit to our freedom of thought and more on the teachings of the church fathers and those in positions of leadership in the church today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Putting individualism aside can heal religious divides<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[112,45,29],"class_list":["post-1298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-brayden-rush","tag-issue-2026-02-13","tag-perspectives"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Putting individualism aside can heal religious divides","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1758,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions\/1758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}