Agreeing disagreeably

The other day I overheard a conversation between a couple of people. It was hard NOT to overhear it. They were in a public place, and they were making no attempt to keep their voices down. It sounded as if they were in a heated argument, to be candid. But in a moment, one of the fellows said: "I'm not disagreeing with you! We're both saying the same thing, just in different ways!" That surprised me. I thought they were definitely on opposite sides of some issue. Then it occurred to me that there have been times when I've been involved in dialog that seemed like argument, but was really agreement, just quibbling over this or that emphasis.

Once in a while we hear someone indicate that it's possible to disagree and still be agreeable. That means, I suppose, continuing to maintain respect, at least civility, in the midst of the contention. It is possible, too, then, to be disagreeable while agreeing!

There have been occasions in church history in which theologians have been in agreement over essential tenets of Christian faith, but have been bitterly opposed on particular doctrinal positions. Sometimes this has been ugly. Rarely did anyone of these leaders question the existence of God or the unique hope Christ brings. But they differed over a mode of baptism, or biblical interpretation, or a particular style of liturgy. And those "agreements" could get pretty disagreeable.

The secular (non-believing) world has trouble figuring all this out, and proceeds to dismiss all Christians as being unable to agree or get our act together. The person who needs to have a word of hope may be unable to hear it from us because all they notice is the competitive, "ours is best" mentality of so many church folks.