Christian Unity

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J_the_Centrist

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I was just going through the latest headlines and I see that Pope Francis is meeting with the Pope of the Coptic church of Egypt, his holiness said that Christians were “united” in the suffering that the Christians in Egypt are going through. I prayed in one of their churches in 2009 when I was in Cairo visiting relatives (yes they are Muslim, but that is not relevant for our purposes).

Lately I feel that Christians are becoming more and more united and I think that this is wonderful, because we all share a common enemy. No, I don’t mean Muslims, but rather those individuals who are trying to propagandize our faith as being inadequate for modern society, even going as far as sexualizing our children. You all know who I mean! Our faith is the largest in the world and if we could all unite against these dark forces we would all be better off.

What do you all think of this?
 
Christians need to stop being so obstinate about remaining separated. Hopefully we can do this before it’s too late for the dark forces to rule the day.
 
J_the_Centrist said:
I was just going through the latest headlines and I see that Pope Francis is meeting with the Pope of the Coptic church of Egypt, his holiness said that Christians were “united” in the suffering that the Christians in Egypt are going through. I prayed in one of their churches in 2009 when I was in Cairo visiting relatives (yes they are Muslim, but that is not relevant for our purposes).

Lately I feel that Christians are becoming more and more united and I think that this is wonderful, because we all share a common enemy. No, I don’t mean Muslims, but rather those individuals who are trying to propagandize our faith as being inadequate for modern society, even going as far as sexualizing our children. You all know who I mean! Our faith is the largest in the world and if we could all unite against these dark forces we would all be better off.

What do you all think of this?
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Christians are facing multiple enemies, on multiple fronts. Islam is certainly one of those enemies. Our brothers and sisters in Egypt and elsewhere around the world see it all the time.
 
I do not see the connection in the OP, and do not agree with the sentiments expressed in the subsequent posts.
 
dzheremi said:
I do not see the connection in the OP, and do not agree with the sentiments expressed in the subsequent posts.
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What do you disagree with in the subseqent posts?

A divided Christianity does nothing to further the Kingdom of God. An obstinate refusal by professing Chrisians to mend the wounds that divide us is an obstacle to fighting the powers of darkness. Do you disagree with that? If so, why?
 
What do you all think of this?
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J the Centrist,

I believe that Christian unity is the will of Christ:

“that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:21).

God bless 🙂

Rony
 
J_the_Centrist said:
I was just going through the latest headlines and I see that Pope Francis is meeting with the Pope of the Coptic church of Egypt, his holiness said that Christians were “united” in the suffering that the Christians in Egypt are going through. I prayed in one of their churches in 2009 when I was in Cairo visiting relatives (yes they are Muslim, but that is not relevant for our purposes).

Lately I feel that Christians are becoming more and more united and I think that this is wonderful, because we all share a common enemy. No, I don’t mean Muslims, but rather those individuals who are trying to propagandize our faith as being inadequate for modern society, even going as far as sexualizing our children. You all know who I mean! Our faith is the largest in the world and if we could all unite against these dark forces we would all be better off.

What do you all think of this?
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I have always said that the problems in the world will always be there. The problems in the world cannot be fixed by the world. They need divine assistance. This divine assistance can only be found in the Church. The Church is a divine institution that helps man and woman to overcome their weaknesses to seek the divine which can empower them to change themselves so as to be able to change the world. However this may be and it is true then the problems in this world cannot be faulted to see this world getting worse. The reason why the world is getting worse is because the Church does not respond. The problem then is the Church. It is those within the Church who do nothing to bring changes into their lives. And it may even be those in the Church who even though they are faithful in their Church duty may have mistrust in many things even to God. How can God work with people who may have little trust in what He can do? The most important ingredient to change is trust. Faith and trust is the same thing. Faith was once said taking the first step without seeing the whole staircase. Can we not take these first steps to make this staircase a reality?
 
Stylteralmaldo said:
What do you disagree with in the subseqent posts?

A divided Christianity does nothing to further the Kingdom of God. An obstinate refusal by professing Chrisians to mend the wounds that divide us is an obstacle to fighting the powers of darkness. Do you disagree with that? If so, why?
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I disagree that anyone is necessarily being obstinate, I disagree with pietistic impulses, and I disagree that we need to hurry up and unify before dark forces rule the day or something like that. I do not believe that these are accurate appraisals of the situations faced by Middle Eastern Christians, and I do not see how “unity”, however you would define that, would fix those situations.

Most Middle Eastern Christian leaders, of all churches, will probably tell you that emigration is the number one threat to their people. Stemming that tide involves many different things, but ecclesiastical unity between Catholics and Orthodox is not a realistic solution to that problem.
 
dzheremi said:
I disagree that anyone is necessarily being obstinate, I disagree with pietistic impulses, and I disagree that we need to hurry up and unify before dark forces rule the day or something like that. I do not believe that these are accurate appraisals of the situations faced by Middle Eastern Christians, and I do not see how “unity”, however you would define that, would fix those situations.

Most Middle Eastern Christian leaders, of all churches, will probably tell you that emigration is the number one threat to their people. Stemming that tide involves many different things, but ecclesiastical unity between Catholics and Orthodox is not a realistic solution to that problem.
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If there is no desire for unity, that’s beyond reason and therefore an obstinate position. I’m not suggesting that most people hold that view, but I do believe it exists and as long as it exists with a sizable enough of minority of persons, the unity of the Church as a whole will continue to be fractured.

I do agree with you that unity ought not be rushed just for the sake of unity.

Also agreed that the present situation of emigration ought to be the primary focus right now. However, a potential side affect of the meeting of minds here could result in a more unified church which indeed could lead to ecclesiastical unity down the road.
 
I think we all want unity. The question is whose idea of unity? I know what the Orthodox idea of that is, and it is very uncompromising, but I think it would wrong to say that therefore Orthodox in particular (or in general) are obstinate. Catholics too are not interested in compromising their dogmatic stances, when push comes to shove, and speaking for myself I wouldn’t want that anyway. Nobody is willing to compromise on anything that actually matters, nor should they.
 
ronyodish said:
J the Centrist,

I believe that Christian unity is the will of Christ:

“that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:21).

God bless 🙂

Rony
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I have used John 17 to make the same point, God bless you! 🙂
 
Jesus gave us His Holy Church and if people want to unite, then yall better come over to the CC. Its where it started and where it will end 😉
 
dzheremi said:
I think we all want unity. The question is whose idea of unity? I know what the Orthodox idea of that is, and it is very uncompromising, but I think it would wrong to say that therefore Orthodox in particular (or in general) are obstinate. Catholics too are not interested in compromising their dogmatic stances, when push comes to shove, and speaking for myself I wouldn’t want that anyway. Nobody is willing to compromise on anything that actually matters, nor should they.
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dzheremi,

In Egypt, from what I can tell, intolerance of other cultures or religions by Islamic fundamentalists is very similar to the Wests “melting pot theology”, where in places like the ‘UNITED’ States, ‘unity’ is quickly being taken to an unnatural extreme. Here in the West, we find our Host Culture (pop-culture) picking and choosing whatever ideologies best suit every walk of life, no matter how sinful. In the weeding out process, many traditions and cultures (including the Catholic culture) are becoming lost, while others are blended in such a way that they become meaningless. Similarly, in the Islamic culture, all other ideologies or cultures are immediately weeded out without hesitation in order to promote a religion/State that that is fundamentally unnatural since it destroys cultures and religions that have come to exist through thousands of years of natural progression. Between the Islamic culture of the East and the Melting Pot culture of the West, we are actually witnessing an extreme Left verses Right situation and finding that these two opposites amazingly create the same results…! It’s fascinating to me!

What I believe “Unity” is in a Catholic sense, is a positive relationship between all cultures and religions that promotes respect, by looking for the good in other traditions or cultures. In society all cultures should live side by side without melting together or dominating each other… If the world could accomplish this, then I’m certain God would take it from there. If we continue trying to either dominate each other, or create ‘blended’ societies without morals, then Gods plan will not come to fruit, and we should all fear the future.

That’s how I see it…
 
kimg901 said:
Jesus gave us His Holy Church and if people want to unite, then yall better come over to the CC. Its where it started and where it will end 😉
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Yes. This is the problem with unity that people have been talking about.
 
In John 17 Jesus spoke about all being One 6 times. Why so many times before his death?

MJ
 
dzheremi said:
I think we all want unity. The question is whose idea of unity? I know what the Orthodox idea of that is, and it is very uncompromising, but I think it would wrong to say that therefore Orthodox in particular (or in general) are obstinate. Catholics too are not interested in compromising their dogmatic stances, when push comes to shove, and speaking for myself I wouldn’t want that anyway. Nobody is willing to compromise on anything that actually matters, nor should they.
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Who would you rather unite with, fellow Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ, or perverts teaching your children how to put a condom on a cucumber?

The way I see it we have to make a choice, united we stand, divided we fall!
 
kimg901 said:
Jesus gave us His Holy Church and if people want to unite, then yall better come over to the CC. Its where it started and where it will end 😉
Click to expand...
That is not unity, that is condescension, didn’t Jesus say in the Gospel of John that He had sheep that we didn’t even know about and that he must call them also?
 
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