Recently there was a great pants protest. Some people didn’t like something so they wore pants to protest. Then other people didn’t like those people wearing pants, or even talking about wearing pants so they said some not nice things. Both sides were intense in their reactions, neither of which seemed very compatible with solving any problem.

Why is it that we care so much what another person in the church thinks, does, or wears on their body to the point of exemplifying exactly the opposite of what we hold dear? (Assuming that we all hold our relationship with Christ dear to us.)

Do we have an obligation to defend the truth, as we see it? And how far should we go in defending it?