In my last post I looked at Gavin Ortlund’s Finding the Right Hills to Die On: The Case for Theological Triage, which provides some principles Christians can use in helping to sort out which theological issues are truly “hills to die on” versus those which we should be able to agree to disagree. This book has helped me clarify my own thinking, not just about theological issues, but about practical issues. In this post, I want to explain how it has helped.

I want to begin with advice I would like to go back and give to my younger self when I was new to Christianity. I was prone to treat issues, which I now consider to be relatively minor, as major issues. To give a concrete example, at one point I was terribly upset with a prior church about Halloween. I thought, given the history of Halloween, that Christians simply ought not to take part in any kind of celebration, including trick-or-treating. (I could explain my reasoning at length here, but that’s not the point of this post.) My conviction was so strong that I believed Christians ought not participate in Hallloween at all, including the practice of trick-or-treating. I also thought that anyone who disagreed with me was obviously wrong and potentially dangerous. Our church, however, had decided to use Halloween as an outreach opportunity in our neighborhood. The idea was a reverse-trick-or-treat event, where the kids dressed up and gave residents a gift along with an invitation to church events. I had serious objections and became rather upset.

If I could go back in time, though, I would want to give myself some advice. I think I’d advocate going past Ortlund’s “theological triage” to a kind of practical triage, asking: 1) Is this even a theological disagreement?

  • Do we agree on the guiding principles/what Scripture has to say on this topic?
  • If so, is the disagreement simply a matter of how much weight we put on different important issues, or how we prioritize different parts of our lives before God?
  • If our disagreement IS theological, it might be worth fighting over (I’d refer to Ortlund’s principles for theological triage) and reaching agreement should be a higher priority
  • If our disagreement is simply the implementation or prioritization of our beliefs within broader theological agreement, agreement is less essential 2) Do other respectable, theologically sound Christians disagree? Do other mature Christians, perhaps even leaders, whom I respect and agree with on other issues, come to a different decision on how to live this out? 3) Can I think of scenarios where a strong Christian would, and perhaps even should, handle this issue differently? If so, my concern is likely not with the issue or principle itself but may simply be a problem I have with what I think is motivating the person working through the issue.

To use my Halloween example, there was no theological disagreement (item 1). The other church members and I agreed that we had no interest in celebrating evil, ghosts, or modernizing ancient pagan traditions about the dead. Nor did we think we could pray for the souls of the recently deceased to help them reach heaven. If we disagreed at all, it was about how to prioritize issues like:

  • Christians should be in the world but not of the world
  • We are to remain salt and light, distinct from the world, if we are to be able to offer any hope to others
  • We should love our neighbors and our community and seek to reach out to them with the gospel of Jesus Christ so that some might be saved
  • Sometimes, an effective form of outreach is to stay separate; certainly this is true with respect to any kind of sin
  • But we also need to meet people where they are, just as Jesus passed through Samaria to reach the Samaritan woman (e.g. John 4)

Ultimately, my disagreement about Halloween came down to me thinking my particular answer to these questions was the ONLY Biblical answer, the ONLY “right” answer, and those who disagreed were wrong, misguided, and maybe even dangerous. I lacked the humility Ortlund advocates for so strongly.

If I’d had a bit more humility, I would have moved on to the second question - “Do other well-meaning and theologically sound Christians disagree?” And in this case, some of the leadership in my church was actually involved with the plans for Halloween outreach – and there was no question they were well-meaning and theologically sound. But if that weren’t enough, presumably I could have dug into history, and modern Christian literature, and found a wide variety of Christian beliefs and practices in this regard. So, again, I lacked humility and was essentially judging all those who disagreed with my own conclusions.

On the third question, “can I think of scenarios where a strong Christian would, and perhaps even should, handle this issue differently?” I think I should have been able to say, “Yes.” The church’s neighborhood was recovering from a natural disaster. People were rebuilding their homes but remained rather disconnected from one another. What if events like Halloween were critical for rebuilding relationships and a sense of community so that we could begin to be involved in one another’s lives, care for one another, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ? That outcome certainly wasn’t guaranteed, but I can easily see how some strong, community-minded Christians could conclude that community events like this could be essential towards creating an environment in which the neighborhood would be receptive to the gospel. And what if our church (which largely served the neighborhood) staying uninvolved would send the message that the church doesn’t care about the people living in the neighborhood? I could easily imagine that Christians might reach different decisions about how to handle Halloween depending on what messages they think are being sent. But, I was too attached to my own particular way of viewing the issue to consider other perspectives. I should have remembered that, to some extent, what they intended might be as important as what they were doing. As 1 Samuel 16:7 says:

“…God does not see as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Triage and ambiguity

In my last post, I pointed out that we tend to hate ambiguity:

Ortlund also notes that part of the reason we are so prone to errors with respect to theological triage is that we very much dislike ambiguity, and there is therefore a great temptation to draw clear dividing lines when they aren’t necessarily warranted.

If I could go back, I would tell my younger self that I was too attached to avoiding ambiguity, to trying to find the “right” answer in every situation even in situations in which there is no single right answer. In my pride, I wanted to believe my way was right and everyone else’s way was wrong, even when it was an issue where there was no single “right” way and where strong Christians might disagree. And, in my pride, I risked doing great harm to my church if I turned my disagreement into division and disunity. If I did so, I would be turning disagreement over a practical matter into theological harm – for, while the Bible doesn’t clearly address our practices with respect to Halloween, it does clearly speak against division and disunity in the church and tells us that Jesus’ disciples are to be known by their love for one another. I was ready to fight with people who were sincerely seeking to serve God from their hearts, and live their lives in worship to him, because I didn’t like the way in which they were doing it. Instead, I should have recognized that we agreed as to the core principles, the theology behind our actions, and been content that we live out our faith in different ways.

So let’s engage in practical triage

Thus, I believe we need to engage not just in theological triage but practical triage. While we will certainly disagree with other Christians in many areas (and I plan to look at some more specifics in subsequent posts), it’s critical we first address whether we actually disagree in terms of theology or principles. If not, then perhaps we can recognize our disagreement is only superficial, and move on, especially if we find that other strong Christians also disagree and that the practicalities of a given situation might warrant different decisions. And let’s beware of our tendency to try and get rid of ambiguity and come to black-and-white answers, even when the Bible doesn’t frame things that clearly.