When Truth Divides and Unity Matters

When I hear Christians talk about Trump—whether it’s praise or panic—I notice something more concerning: how divided we’ve become, not just politically but spiritually. It’s not just Left vs Right anymore. It’s good vs evil, pure vs compromised. When the “truth” is being weaponised, my heart aches.

Jesus didn’t pray, “Father, make them right.” He prayed, “Make them one” (John 17:21). One in Him. Not uniform, but united. Not through shared ideology, but shared identity in Christ.

The apostle Paul picks up this vision in 1 Corinthians 12. He describes the church as one body with many parts—different gifts, roles, voices. “The eye can’t say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you.’” And yet, some Christians today are so quick to disown one another over politics or public opinion. We’ve replaced the communion table with a purity test.

Don’t get me wrong—truth matters. But truth is not a universal licence to divide. That’s where I find the wisdom of the Orthodox tradition strangely refreshing. They’ve long held that unity is not a soft value—it’s an essential one. In the early church, heresy was taken seriously. But so was the danger of schism.

As St. John Chrysostom warned:

“Nothing so provokes God’s anger as the division of the Church. Even the blood of martyrdom does not wash away the sin of schism.”

That’s sobering. You don’t protect the truth by destroying the body.

The danger of our moment is this: we’re tempted to become prophets without priests. Voices of truth without tears. Or, on the other side, peace-lovers without courage. But the call of Christ is to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15), with the goal of building up—not tearing down—the body.

All of this entails humility – recognising that our allegiance isn’t to a party or a tribe, but to the crucified King who unites Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female—and yes, Left and Right—in one new humanity.