When Churches Can’t Find Unity

 Churches that claim to all be filled with “Christians” are breaking up, leaving their denominations and are hugely at odds with each other.  Of course the splits seemed to be caused by some taking the Bible more seriously and literally than others.

I saw this article in a left-leaning publication but thought it was interesting because it was talking about the Methodist split.  It goes on to point out that the last time the churches were split it was right before the Civil War.  As they say, maybe we aren’t staring down the barrel of another Civil War but it’s a sign that the nation is “coming apart at the seams”.

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At first blush, this might seem like an issue that’s peripheral to American politics — a purely religious matter. But it’s actually an indicator of just how fractured our politics have become. And if history is any indication, it’s about to get even worse.

The last major split in the church occurred in the 1840s, when the question of slavery opened a rift in America’s major evangelical denominations. For years, the churches had successfully contained debates over the propriety of slavery. Denominational leaders, clergymen and parishioners largely agreed to disagree. When the schism did finally come, many observers worried that the inability of the churches to maintain unity portended something far more serious. And they were right.

Amid handwringing over the current state of political polarization, it’s worth revisiting the religious crackup of the 1840s. The United States is not likely staring down the barrel at a second civil war, but in the past, when churches split over politics, it was a sign that country was fast coming apart at the seams.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/09/methodist-church-lgbtq-slavery-00073112