Conflicts in the Church

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*What are the family conflict styles in the church?

Research reveals that families are changing because of various current pressures that bring stress to the American family life. For example, families have to face the psychological, physical, and social difficulties of illnesses, accidents, and death; including the painful consequences of natural disasters (Bascue & Lewis, 1958). Further, they emphasize that for some families, psychological and asocial adjustments accompany decisions such as the adoption of children, relocation, or return to school for further education. Finally, a family conflict style in the church is the lack of recognition of the changing family system. It must be recognized in the church the shift away from the traditional two-parent structure to include single parents, same-sex-couples, and adoptive families, who have their own style or family system. However, conflicts have emerged in the church as it struggles to recognize and accept new family systems. Moreover, church members who have different lifestyles must encounter those who express shock at their lifestyle, or harbor the tendency to impose church or social values upon those they view as different.

Birky (2005 as cited in Birky, Rock, & Thomasma, 2005) refers to family conflicts in the church as "Family-of-origins conflicts, or "transference conflicts that he suggests are root in unresolved family issues that are then transferred to the church. For instance, as Birky et al note, parishioners or church leaders may not be aware of what they are supporting, because they do not recognize the conflict as originating from the family. As an example, ...