Episode Details

Christians have deep differences about ideas and people. Yes, it’s true! For nearly 2,000 years of Church history, we’ve argued about salvation, end times, baptism, and beyond—including fantastical stories. If Christians didn’t argue about stuff, you wouldn’t be listening now. But now over social media, it feels like Christians are battling even more fiercely about politics, Christian leaders, Church failings, and how we engage with good and bad ideas in our culture. We’ve touched on these issues ourselves, but this time, let’s explore how great stories might help us best discern these debates, and even fight for peace.

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1. The Church is Christ’s bride, yet they have always argued ideas.

• To review, the Church is amazing, but its people have always fought.
• In contrast, some people assume the early Church was simply perfect.
• Nope: apostles debated tactics, Saul’s conversion, meat sacrificed to idols.
• Even separate Christian “denominations” appeared early, if not by name.
• 1 Corinthians reveals “super-apostle” issues. Galatians reveals legalistic leaders.
• We live in God’s real world, where Christians fight. That’s just inevitable.
• Therefore, Christians denominations are okay, and we may need to debate.

2. Many Christian social-media fights aren’t about ideas, but people.

• To explore what we mean, we need to dare getting more specific.
• We’re very sympathetic to folks with legit horrid church trauma.
• At the same time, this trauma can be turned into a moral currency to spend.
• That’s what Stephen means by saying, “The Church Back Home syndrome.”
• People often use “ideas,” “history,” or “politics” as language for personal issues.
• For example, the Russian attack on Ukraine may invite imaginative projection.
• Or with border policy, people imagine themselves outside or inside “the wall.”
• In either case, it’s not really about issues of war or borders, but about people.
• It feels intellectually dishonest or unnecessary to deny these imaginations.
• We are not pure-logicians, brains in tanks. We are people, often with real pains.

3. To respect people, and heal from personal pain, we need art and fiction.

• Stephen has argued that many Christians make politics a new “pop culture.”
• This habit may suppress the truth of our God-given imaginations.
• For folks with real church trauma, we don’t have fictional outlets to explore it.
• Folks who’ve seen only conflict (not trauma) are drawn to loud explanations for it.
• Either group must stop using politics, ideas, debates as evasive language.
• We need to stop projecting our personal villains atop real people’s faces.
• C. S. Lewis referred to such personal slurs as Bulverism, complete with origin story.
• Stories can help us “cool” by revealing wonders that pu