You're a Christian?! What's Your Flavor?

 When I talk to someone I have just met and we get to the topic of religion, the conversations usually go somewhat like this:

    THEM: What is your religion?

    ME: I'm a Christian?

    THEM: Cool. What kind?

At this point, throughout my journey through Christianity, I had to give answers like "I am a Lutheran," or "I am a Mormon (now known as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)". While it technically should have been sufficient to say that I am Christian, it is not. But why is that so?

The problem lies in the nature of man and the vagueness of scripture. Let's focus on the latter first. Jesus said a lot of things, but not all of them were written down. And even the ones that were are not discussing a lot of 21st-century problems. So over time, certain discussions about vague passages and their interpretation have occurred. From time to time, these little disagreements got bigger and lead to the split of Christian groups into several others. The other factor is the nature of man. The generic human being is greedy and selfish by nature, that is no secret. So, for example, some wanted to have absolute power in their Christian group, while others wanted the power to rest upon several heads. This lead to the split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox, just to name one time when this happened. But it is not always because of power; sometimes, people just want to be right and thus split over disagreements, even the smallest ones like the right age to be baptized. 

<<I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, 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. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me.>> (John 17:20-23, RSVCE, emphasis added)

Jesus himself wanted his church to be one, to be unified like he and the Father are. He did not say: Go ye forth and start a ton of churches. And split ye over every little argument like what kind of bread to use for the eucharist." 

Why is having 33,000 denominations a problem, though? Well, what kind of picture does it send to people outside the faith if we constantly argue with each other instead of focusing on the one true center of our faith: Jesus?! From experience, I have seen people that rejected the Gospel mainly because of the confusion about the denominations. 

Okay, but what is the solution? There is not a single button one could push to magically bring us all together. Every denomination might say: "If everyone would join us, the problem would be solved." Duh... But in reality, if we would try to communicate more, we could possibly avoid splits over misunderstandings. Also, if we accept slight deviations in opinions, we can learn to live next to each other, side by side. We cannot undo the divides that happened in the past, so maybe we could at least try to get into communion with each other, or we could at least stand together when it comes to charity and serving our neighbor. 

In my opinion, it is not the end of the world to have different flavors of Christianity. The one thing that has to stop though is the fighting. We are one body. Of course, the arms are different than the legs or the gallbladder. If one wants to worship God through rock music, so be it. If others need incense, that is fine to me. But in one thing, we all have to agree: Jesus is our Savoir. If we can do this, then there still is hope, and the body can function.

Media Sources:

https://i.redd.it/ujn5dfu24dc41.png

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/573495b91d07c02082dd7692/5734c1949f7266f8a84626d0/5c41145921c67c7d1f70648e/1549735050427/body-of-christ.png?format=1500w