High School football is big in Texas.  You may remember the phrase, “This town is not big enough for the two of us.”  The radio station serving the towns of Liberty and Dayton found itself not big enough for two towns.  KSHN-FM ran into trouble whenever the football teams from both towns had a game at the same time.  Which game do they broadcast?  Do they alternate?  Cover the team with the best record?  Broadcast the game of the school with the most listeners?  Let the sponsors decide?

 

Or compromise?  What would compromise look like in this situation?  The station finally came up with an innovative solution.  Utilizing their stereo capabilities they decided to broadcast one of the games on the right channel and one on the left.  Listeners could decide for themselves which game to listen to by using the balance knobs on their radios.  One channel, two games.

 

That kind of solution works in the world of sports broadcasting because no one is trying to build a spirit of unity between the two towns of Liberty and Dayton.  And some church denominations may find a good way to use the multiple channel model to accomplish their mission.  Presbyterians have taken a different type of approach.  We have said that being together as a nationwide church only makes sense if we are on the same team.  

 

But what does it mean to be on the same team?  What is essential to be presbyterian?  Though our ideal of unity in essentials and freedom in non-essentials sounds inspiring, our history shows we aren’t yet very good at living within those ideals.  And the way we resolved the conflicts in the past may surprise you.  In the two major presbyterian conflicts of the 20th century the so-called advocates of tolerance excommunicated their opponents in order to end the controversy.

 

Now, as in the two major conflicts of the 20th century, the rumors circulate that the conservatives are ready to split.  They are not.  An intense campaign of obfuscation and innuendo is underway to frighten the moderates in the church into abandoning their conservative friends.  As a presbyterian moderate I feel pressure all of the time to disassociate myself from my conservative friends.  

 

And guess what?  My conservative friends NEVER pressure me to disassociate myself from my liberal friends.

 

Once again we learn that things are not always as they seem.