Thought for the Day: Jimmy Carter on Church Unity

Christians who truly follow the nature, actions, and words of Jesus Christ should encompass people who are different from us….It is not easy to do this. It is a natural human inclination to encapsulate ourselves in a superior fashion with people who are just like us – and to assume that we are fulfilling the mandate of our lives if we just confine our love to our own family or to people who are similar and compatible. Breaking through this barrier and reaching out to others is what personifies a Christian and emulates the perfect example that Christ set for us.

- Jimmy Carter, Our Endangered Values, America’s Moral Crisis (Simon & Schuster, 2006), p. 31.

Along this same line, you may want to check out a thoughtful blog entry by my friend and former colleague on the staff of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, Gene Straatmeyer. These are his thoughts on the subject of schism in the church.  Gene is an evangelically-minded retired Presbyterian minister, who's had long years of mission involvement with Native Americans, and, more recently,  a year of volunteer service in Malawi, Africa.