Holy Catholic Church

Our churches are conflicted. We have become embroiled in political wars over issues of interpretation of a few non-central passages, and in doing so, destroy the unity we are called to as the Christian community. I hurt everytime I hear words like "apostate" applied to those who believe in the salvation through Jesus Christ, and affirm the tenets of the Apostle's Creed, but have come to a different understanding of what the Bible mandates for the way we relate to each other. I get angry when I see the way we divide ourselves, and close off dialogue throughout the community of Christians because of our defensiveness. These attacks, from both sides, have created a lack of trust within the churches, and through it, we are losing our "catholicism," our unity (not uniformity) that we affirm in the documents that define what it means to be a Christian. How are we supposed to minister to the world if we can't live in peace with ourselves?