I was listening to the news this morning while driving to a dental appointment. One of the news items was that Mr. Obama was buying a minority interest in NBA Africa. No, I’m not commenting on the marvel of how a poor man becomes rich when achieving high political office, but he has the $$$$$ to buy an interest in the NBA.

What sparked my interest was that he was investing in an Africa project. He’s from Africa. He has family there. He’s interested in Africa and all its varied peoples. And that’s a good thing. He can be a good American and care about Africa. And of course that got me to thinking about the Church and the diversity that exists within her. (I use the feminine pronoun rather that the neuter when referring to the Church – she is after all the Bride of Christ.) I’m not talking here about the diversity of nations, families, clans, ethnicities, and language groups that make up the Church – those are superficials. No, I’m talking about doctrinal diversity.

The Church can be both unified and diverse simultaneously. We must be unified on the fundamentals of the Christian faith: God is. He is unique in all his universe. He has always been and always will be. He is One God in Three Persons who created heaven and earth. There is a rebellion against his rule that began in heaven and is being waged here on Planet Earth. Humanity in our First Parents joined the rebellion and became subject to the death that comes to those who rebel against the Sovereign. God chose, why I don’t know, to redeem and pardon some of them by the death, burial, and resurrection of his Son. To those he has redeemed he has given the Holy Spirit to transform their minds and to make them his own. And he has given them eternal life to be realized when the Son returns to claim his own and to end the rebellion forever. On these facts the Church stands. To reject them is to reject membership in the Church.

But the Church can also be diverse. I often say I don’t even agree with myself! Once we go beyond the Fundamentals as expressed by the early church in the Apostles’ Creed and the other early statements of faith, we are diverse. The church (I capitalize when speaking of the universal body of the redeemed, and lower case when speaking of the human institution.) first divided east and west into the Roman and Orthodox churches, and ever since the Reformation has been dividing into a thousand expressions – some of which at least are still true to the Fundamentals while having different views on matters of church organization and polity, manner of baptism, the partaking of communion, and on and on. A Christian who has a sincere conviction on believer baptism by immersion can have close Christian fellowship with one who is equally sincere in his belief that the aspersion of infants best celebrates the community of faith.

Now back to Mr. Obama. America is not a mono-ethnic nation. As a nation of migrants we come from all the world’s peoples. Even the so-called “white” people come with very diverse family and cultural traditions. It is only right that Mr. Obama have a special interest in Africa. He’s rooted there. It would only be a cause of alarm if he were to start calling for the destruction of our national Declaration of Independence and Constitution and replacing them with some pan-African slogan. He can be fully American and yet be African in the same way that my Christian brother can be fully Christian and be a Baptist or Presbyterian or Assemblies of God, or Church of God in Christ.