Intolerance divides the church

Agreeing to disagree means that both sides stop trying to convert each other, Malm writes in an opinion article in Dagen. Christians often seem to have forgotten how to do so. As a result, some social issues, such as LGBT, threaten to split the church, he argues.

Intolerant

According to the Swedish author, people have changed their views on tolerance. Where it used to be about the "will and ability to put up with the views I don't like", it is now all about being open to specific values and lifestyles. Intolerance is seen as having "the wrong opinion about these values", which should therefore "be opposed." in short, a true tolerant person should, according to modern society, be strongly intolerant of intolerance.

Churches have two options when dealing with controversial matters, Malm states. "Either the church becomes a mirror image of a polarised world, or we learn to live with our differences."

The author himself pleads for the second option. He supports his view with the example of the apostle Paul who dealt with controversies around the holy days and food laws. "Paul does not take a position on the issues themselves but leaves the field open for different positions", Malm writes. "Not because the apostle relativises truth but because everyone is responsible before Jesus Christ as Lord, which means that no one can judge my choices.

Service

For churches nowadays, that means Christians with a different view on specific issues, such as the LGBT matter, should learn to agree to disagree, Malm states. In addition, conservative Christians and more liberal believers should not judge others for having different views on certain matters. "As Paul writes: He who dares to eat should not judge him who does not; the one who does not dare to eat should not judge the one who dares. God has accepted him. What right have you to judge the one who stands in the service of another?"

To really become an open church, Christians must accept each other as they are, Malm writes. He refers to the German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who writes about the Biblical concept of bearing each other's burdens. "To bear the other's burdens means to put up with him as he is, as God created him", Bonhoeffer argued.

Malm agrees with this reading and adds that Christian communities cannot be built and maintained by "running over people's dignity, what they look at with pride." Instead, Christians should never run over someone's conscience, he writes, "and force or manipulate someone to go against their conscience."