Getting it back to front

By John Halford

lthough I was born in England, I have lived quite contentedly in the USA for many years. But there is something about many Americans’ backyards that leave me feeling uncomfortable. They don’t have fences.

"Good fences make good neighbors," as the saying goes. But I notice that many American neighbors seem to get along without them. Both my daughters live in Ohio, in beautiful homes on big lots in nice neighborhoods. Out back is an expanse of well-kept lawn that blends seamlessly with the next-door properties. This has its advantages. Children can run free, and there are no awkward "can we have our ball back?" confrontations. But I always feel a bit exposed. I like my backyard to be clearly demarcated with a good solid fence or a hedge, or ideally both. That’s how they do it across the pond.

Front yards in America often tell the same story. No walls or fences—just an unbroken stretch of neat lawns with a couple of trees and some individualistic landscaping here and there for variety. I do think that’s better. In Britain we like to fence off our front yards too—no matter how small they are. Even if it is just a patch of lawn the size of a small rug, surrounded by narrow flower beds, we will still often add a chest-high wall or hedge and a barred gate to seal it off from the outside world. The Englishman’s home is his castle, and any self-respecting castle has to have walls.

Castles maybe—but churches? Churches, like British front and backyards, seem to like to separate themselves with walls. Congregations of different denominations in the same town, or even the same street, often have nothing to do with each other. Often the biggest hurdle to joint projects is just getting the local pastors and priests to sit at the same table, let alone darken each other’s doors.

There are exceptions. I belong to our local Ministerial Association, along with ministers from Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist and Pentecostal congregations. We all get along pretty well, but we do have to respect each other’s space.

Perhaps that is the key. Denominations are like families, and they have developed their own ways of doing things. One Christian’s tradition may be another’s "heresy." I don’t just mean major doctrinal and theological differences. It is often minor sociological variations that keep churches apart; things like speaking in tongues, clapping during the hymns or how they "do" baptism and communion.

Those differences need to be respected. Eager evangelists urge Christians to "come out of our comfort zones." And so we should, but not all the time. A church is to some extent a refuge (it is, after all, called a sanctuary), and if those who come there are made to feel continually uncomfortable, they will go somewhere else. Anglicans, Methodists, Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals and other Christian churches are different, and they need places to be themselves. They need, so to speak, British-style backyards.

But what about out front? Here is where we could learn something from our American townscapes. The open lawns and lack of fussy dividing fences turn what would otherwise be a row of houses into an inviting neighborhood.

Why do Christians, who essentially believe the same things and face a common challenge, find it so hard to work together? Why should what others do to worship God pose a threat? Certainly Jesus prayed that the church be "one." But that did not necessarily mean "one size fits all." To work together with other Christians need not mean abandoning the traditions that make your church your spiritual home.

So enjoy your spiritual backyard. But surely at this time when the whole idea of Christianity is under threat, we need to blend our front yards into a more inviting neighborhood. Yes, even if those who visit do not end up knocking on our door. Is it not time that more of us knocked down some of those silly walls, and gave the hedge a severe pruning? We owe the world a better view of our beautiful Christian neighborhood. Is what those folks across the street do really so awful that you can’t work with them? •