Flawed.

If Christianity is true, then why are there so many views? So many extremes? So many disagreements?
Why is the Christian Church so fragmented if we have God on our side?

How is it that you can have two Church ministers talking, one who advocates homosexuality, and the other who says it's a sin? One who leads a Pentecostal 'happy-clappy' church, and one who says they are misguided and wrong? One who says the tsunami was an unfortunate natural disaster, and one who says it was an act of God against an unrighteous world?

Big questions. Big differences. A hard topic for Christians and non-Christians alike. I've struggled with it too.

I don't pretend to know everything, or to be able to say which (if any) of the ideas in the questions above are right. But I am willing to put forward a reason for why these different opinions occur, whilst still maintaining that God is God.

Simply, we're flawed.

No Christian is perfect. No Christian is even anywhere near that! Christians merely try to live lives that are right by God. But inevitably we will fail. Every day there are temptations and challenges of the world, and every minute of our existence we fail. My argument is that first and foremost it is a failing to meet with God, and discern what God wants, and secondly a failure to accept what God wants and let go of our own ideas and prejudices. That is why the Church is so often divided, why there are so many divisions and disagreements.

I can say confidently that if everyone prayed earnestly and willingly, and was prepared to let go of their own values and prejudices in order to discern what God wanted, there would be no disagreements. But at the same time I know that no-one can manage that completely. I know I fail continuously. Every time someone buys something they don't need instead of giving to the needy, or speaks harshly against another person, they are failing. And that includes me. What I want to stress here is that the Christian faith is not broken because God is broken, but because we as individuals are broken.

There are some terrible things happen in the world under the name of God, many of which are clearly not God's will, and it's tragic to see these things happen, and to see how they reflect on Christianity as a whole, but that doesn't make the faith wrong. Just as you can't say a parent is fundamentally flawed because of some mistakes they've made, nor can you say the whole Christian faith is flawed because of some mistakes Christians have made. Sure there are often a lot of mistakes made, but that reflects on us as individuals, and not on God.

So when you see someone saying something or doing something contrary to their faith, or with a differing opinion, it's not because God is broken, but because we are. Remember that whatever is said, whoever is judged and however someone represents or misrepresents Christianity, it is because they are flawed, not God.