Enemy Inside the Gate?

Religion departments at universities can be strange places. They aren't like biology departments, math departments or exercise science departments. They can be brutal places full of politics and subsequent debates. I double majored in English and Religion in college, and I can honestly say that the the halls of the English department just weren't filled with debates over Sylvia Plath's use of alliteration. But walk through the halls of the religion department and you'd think you were in the political science department - Calvinists arguing with Armenians, Baptists arguing with everyone else (and often themselves). This is the environment in which my roommate and I spent much of our time. This is the environment that I often forget. This is the environment that I remembered upon a recent visit from my college roommate.

TJ now lives about 500 miles away from me, and we had not seen each other in several years. It was a real surprise when he told me he was on his way to Boone...but a surprise I welcomed. As we talked about the good ole days, the memories came rushing back. And as we talked about our old friends, we shared with each other what we knew of our old friends' current lives they are leading. We talked about a couple friends who have died; we talked about our friends who have been successful in their businesses; and we talked about the ones who have done nothing after school. And we speculated about the ones neither of us had kept up with. Then TJ told me about an experience he had while he was in seminary with a couple of the guys from the "good ole days." These guys had invited him to speak at an apologetics conference for students. He said that he was stunned by their introduction of him to the students: "TJ is a guy that has come a long way; he used to be my enemy."

Maybe I need to go back a little...

TJ and I often found ourselves in the middle of those religion hall debates. We looked up to a professor there in the religion department that many of the other students saw as a little "unorthodox." I guess some would even have called him a heretic. Needless to say, as disciples of this prof, some of the other students took issue with some of our assertions and ideas. We didn't really associate with their group, and neither did they with ours. Our only real interaction was in the halls between classes as we exchanged and debated ideas. College changes people, and TJ and I are no different. I changed; TJ changed. But we did not change together. TJ went to a Seminary that focused on classical apologetics. Mine focused on spiritual formation and leadership.

That's what the guy meant when he said TJ had "come a long way." He meant TJ had moved closer to their camp. He was saying that TJ was no longer his enemy.

TJ said he was stunned, and when he told me about it, I was disturbed. I told him that I would have said, "He may have thought of me as his enemy, but I didn't think of him as mine." It's hard for me to understand that. I just don't get how another follower of Jesus Christ can be my enemy. If this thing we are living is indeed a war, then my guess is that we are supposed to all be on the same side. But so many of us want to make it into a Civil War. We lose sight of the real enemy.

Why is it that Religion Department Halls sound like Political Science Departments? Why are we so focused on our disagreements? Why do we lose sight of the important things we do agree on? Why do we search out the things that misalign us? And why do we label people (ourselves included) by the things that divide us?

"I am a liberal."

"I am a Calvinist."

"I am a Pre-millennialist."

"I am a Lutheran."

"I am an Evangelical."

"I am a Postmodern."

"I am a Traditionalist."

And so it goes as we misalign ourselves. Why can't I just be a follower of Jesus who doesn't have everything figured out? Why do I have to be someone's enemy?