On the first Saturday of the month, a few of us from our church hit the streets and go door to door to evangelize. We try and talk to people, invite them to church, and above all, just share the gospel. Lots of people are reluctant, and I get that, because in general, I don’t like people coming to my door either. In fact, though I love talking to people about faith, I’m uncomfortable interrupting people’s lives. Nonetheless, I wanted to get more comfortable sharing my faith, and I’ve seen it done by other people, so I thought the best way is to simply get over my reluctance and get out there and talk to people. The worst that can happen is they say no, or reject me. Almost every time I go out, I run across people who have objections to the gospel, some of which I thought it might be worth sharing.
Talking to one guy today (Apr 4, 2026), he said he believes in God, but religion divides.
I have heard this for some time and it’s one of the common objections to Christianity. So I wanted to write out some of my thoughts about this.
1. Religion isn't the divider, people divide.
The claim that “religion divides” seems to claim that it is religion that specifically divides. But people divide over just about anything. Why? Because they are capable of thinking independently. People are divided by countries, languages, races. Even in close proximity, people divide over philosophies, political issues, sports, what kind of car they drive (I’m a Ford man!), what kind of computer or phone they have (I’m a mac/apple guy), what kind of hobbies they pursue or pizza they eat. In the worst examples they form themselves into gangs and divide over what street or area of town they live in. People divide over all kinds of things. They can also divide over religion. But the fact that people divide over just about anything, including religious belief, should tell us that “religion” isn’t the specific problem; “people” are.
2. Religion actually unites people
Every Sunday and Wed, we gather with other believers to sing songs, pray, and hear a message together. Which is to say: we unite together.
Many believers serve in various ministries together, including helping out others in the community. Churches have outreaches to homeless, addicts, single parents. Churches actually foster community FAR more than the guy who does nothing more than mind his own business. In this, while most people aren’t “divided” per se, by keeping to themselves, they aren’t united. Anomie is the word for this: they are atomized, alone. We have an innate capacity to unite, but we obviously can’t unite with everyone, there are too many people out there. (perhaps this is why people in small towns can be “friendlier”- there are less people. Whereas I’m not going to say hi to all 15 million people in the greater Los Angeles area) This capacity to unite works to unify us into smaller groups, but those smaller groups are exclusionary by nature, because they can’t include everyone. Nonetheless, uniting in these groups causes us to think outside ourselves, see something bigger than ourselves, and even learn to sacrifice and give for others. We become more human by unifying in groups than through anomie.
Personally, I have met other Christians from all over the world, and if they are truly Christians, then we are family. This means I have been united with fellow believers all over the world: it transcends race, nationality, and language. I’m not sure there is a greater unifier in existence today.
3. But people DO divide over religion!
One might justify the assertion that religion divides simply by pointing out that there are hundreds of different types of churches. That much is true, but so what? While there are disagreements over doctrinal issues among Christians, as long as we live tolerantly, which at least in the West, we do, then the unity that is happening in churches is a far greater positive than those staying separated.
Of course, there are legitimate differences in belief about religion, but is there any area of life that doesn’t have that? If being against religion because it “divides” people is legitimate, then one would need to be against just about every human activity because people divide over that too.
Perhaps the better terminology for these divisions would simply be differences.
A stronger justification for the assertion that religion divides might be to point to religious wars. Again, I would point out that wars are fought over all kinds of things. In the distant past it was mostly over booty and women. In the more recent past, religion has been used by leaders to motivate and mobilize their people to go to war. It has been relatively rare that religious motives were the actual reasons FOR going to war, but the reason that religion is used to motivate and mobilize people is precisely because it unites people.
It would be fair enough to note that while shared religious belief may indeed unite a small group, the same dynamic can be used to unite that group against another group with different beliefs. This is also true. But there is no belief that will unite everyone worldwide. More to the point, while the unifying effect of religion has been used to motivate and mobilize peoples against others, simply removing religion, were that possible, would only remove one unifying factor. At that point, humans would simply switch to another unifying factor- such as nationality, race, etc. The objection to religion seems to assume a sort of post-religious utopia that history doesn’t support.
It would also be fair to point out that the nature of religion as a worldview is particularly potent because it claims an absolute truth about reality, morality, and the afterlife that are much more consequential than some of the other divides. But while people are particularly committed to religion, it actually strengthens the core claim that religion is a unifier, not a divider. And 20th century secular societies such as communist regimes operated as explicitly anti-religious and were the deadliest killers in history.