Stumbling blocks

I am struck today by Romans 14 and 15. These chapters teach us how to treat others. Our goal is to avoid being stumbling blocks to others. We should avoid judging others for fear of weakening them, and we should avoid doing things that will distress and weaken others.

This does not result in wishy washy subjectivism. Paul gives us guidelines for determining our own behavior: we should be fully convinced in our own mind that what we are doing is for the Lord, and we should avoid behaviors that will push others away from their faith. 

I use the word "behaviors" intentionally. Paul makes it clear that God does not care about right belief. God cares that we have faith and live righteous lives. Those are the factors that make us God's children. Paul frees us with the knowledge that the specifics of our beliefs are completely irrelevant.

Today, many members of the church put stumbling blocks in front of those whose faith is weak. Not just on issues which have traditionally divided churches (such as predestination, baptism, communion, just to name almost none of the issues which have caused division). In the US, a Christian is expected to hold political beliefs that, more or less, align with Republicans. For those of us who care more about justice for the weak and poor and reject a literal, science denying view of the Bible, for those of us who see stewardship of the earth to be a more important biblical issue than reducing taxes, this marriage of religion and politics is a stumbling block.

If we take the lesson of Romans 14 and 15 seriously, we should stop worrying so much what people believe and start giving our lives over to God. Beliefs matter, they control our behavior, but they only matter in so far as they control our behavior. So stop caring what other people believe, stop trying to tell people what the righteous life is, and start caring about how you can remove the stumbling blocks that keep them from being fully convinced that what they are doing is for the Lord.