What we have in common

In my last post, I mentioned Rachel Held Evans blog post Liberal Christianity, Conservative Christianity, and the Caught-In-Between. I hadn't read the complete post, but I took the time to read it just now. This really resonated with me:

 For example, I will continue to speak out passionately against the patriarchy advocated by folks like John Piper because I feel strongly that the Church is better served when men and women are treated as functional equals. But if John and I had the chance to share communion together—to partake together of the body and blood of Christ—I would do it in heartbeat. I disagree with him, but he is my brother. We have more commonalities than differences.  I think we just forget sometimes that we argue because of what we have in common. 

I am so glad to see this. I have seen her speaking out passionately, but I don't know if I had heard her call him a brother. It is so easy to begin to demonize those who don't agree with you and begin to think of them as "the other." Now I see that this is NOT what Evans is doing. Most of what I have seen of her has been on Twitter, and I could have easily conflated something she said with follow-on comments that she may not have agreed with.