What does unity mean?

For a very long time now the forces of progressivism and liberalism have sought to steal doctrine from the unity of the Church and replace with a big tent approach.  These forces are also at work in Rome trying to do the same thing.  One Cardinal actually said “when we speak of unity, of communion, we are not referring to unity of thought.”  What an odd statement!  Are the words of the Creeds merely suggestions or symbolic language?  Has Rome accepted the fact that there are different theologies at work within its big tent and decided to accept that?

In what seem see as either tragedy or comedy, the Battle for the Bible in the Missouri Synod was not really about everyone accepting what the theologians and Bible scholars at the St. Louis Seminary had come to embrace, it was about toleration.  The cause then was the same as it is now.  Lutheranism ought to be a big tent in which we hold some things in common but always defer to local option.  Goodness knows that has defined us with respect to worship and catechesis.  We are literally everyone doing what we deem to be right in our own eyes.  As long as we retain the confessional article in our constitutions, the rest of it does not seem to matter.  Before we point our finger at Rome and snicker, we must admit that the same has befallen us.  Unity means nearly anything and everything but not doctrinal agreement.  

All over the place Christianity is redefining what it means to agree.  More often than not it has come to mean agreeing to disagree but also agreeing that the disagreement does not matter.  How else can you explain the ecumenical connections with the ELCA and nearly everyone but the next largest Lutheran church body in America?  My fear is that we are holding out against the ELCA but caving in to the local forces who define what is believed, taught, and confessed in the congregation, how and what worship takes place, and who is admitted to the Lord's Table.  We did fight the Battle for the Bible and a little more than 100K of our people left in protest to end up somewhere in the ELCA (or its spin offs).  But did we lose the war?  When unity means anything and everything except doctrine, that is exactly what we have done.  We have lost the war.  Maybe we did not lose it on the convention level or in official teaching, we I fear we have lost it where it counts in the minds and hearts of the people in the pews.

What would St. Paul say to this?  His harsh words exposing the false doctrinal unity within the Corinthian congregation would not be softened in his rebuke of us.  If we continue to define pastoral training in terms of minimums instead of fullness, we will effectively localize even the ministry to the point where no one knows or cares what they really believe.  Pastoral formation is at its core indoctrination (yes, I know that is a bad word in the minds of some).  We form the pastoral heart and mind by enduing in them the doctrine of the faith so that their voices may confess in and outside of the congregation the unchanging faith.  Rome seems to have forgotten that you reap what you sow.  Have we forgotten it as well?