Shall We Stop This Bleeding?

My wife and I were moved to tears on several occasions through the two and a half hour showing of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. Yet it was one line that stopped me in my tracks – “Shall we stop this bleeding?”  Abraham Lincoln presided over the United States during a period of immense struggle and loss.  New research estimates that up to 850,000 American lives were lost in the Civil War, more than in any other armed conflict in U.S. history.[1]  We were literally shredding ourselves to pieces.  Lincoln’s soft-spoken principles and longsuffering patience not only brought the country out of war but sealed the fate of millions for freedom.

“Shall we stop this bleeding?”  The line drew my attention to a situation in a Young Life area I had recently been called on for consultation.  A member of the local Young Life committee refused to work with Catholics in the oversight and support of the ministry.  Citing biblical references and centuries-old Catholic resources, this individual pronounced that Catholicism’s works righteousness blatantly contradicted the clear biblical witness of salvation by grace.  Accordingly, the church (and Young Life) needed to be purged of such doctrinal profanation brought about by the slippery slope of ecumenical partnership.

“Shall we stop this bleeding?”  What this individual would not accept, after repeated attempts by the local Young Life staff, is that this issue has already been settled.  Justification, the crux of all the disputes of the Reformation, “the article upon which the church stands or falls,” has achieved a common understanding.  The 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification pronounced an official agreement between the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church: “Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works”(JD, 15).

“Shall we stop this bleeding?”  The wound has been mended, the sutures in place.  We are, in this most central issue, already one.  Yet one careless word or one belligerent insistence on the past can easily reopen the injury and render the church powerless to do its work of making disciples of all nations.  I am proud to be a part of the “big tent” approach of both Young Life and the Catholic Church who, despite our remaining differences, have chosen to stand side by side in the fight to rescue young people. 

“Shall we stop this bleeding?”  It is up to you.    

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[1]             Guy Gugliotta, “New Estimates Raises Civil War Death Toll,” The New York Times (April 2, 2012), http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/civil-war-toll-up-by-20-percent-in-new-estimate.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 (accessed December 12, 2012).