Robin W. Lovin is a United Methodist minister and professor of ethics at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He also has taught at the University of Chicago and Drew University.
Christians are people of conviction .
They follow the word of God as they understand it, even when that means standing against a world where many hardly know what they believe and few stand for anything. That makes them powerful witnesses, but it can also divide them bitterly against one another. The history of the church is a story of such conflicts . In the United States, we have endured turmoils over such issues as slavery, segregation, and economic injustice. Today, we face controversies over the role of women and over human sexuality.