Horizontal Hostility: What Is It, Why Is It Killing the Church, and How to Fix It - a podcast by Rich Birch

Horizontal hostility is a sociological phenomenon used to describe infighting or factionalism within a minority movement. Rather than banding together, subgroups snipe and fight with each other.

It’s that weird thing that happens in small subcultures – when outsiders look in, they can’t believe the groups fighting each other. Some humorous examples would be:



Why do people who love Star Wars not get along with Star Trek fans?

Did you know that vegans can’t stand vegetarians because they haven’t gone “all the way”?

There are people within the Disney fan subculture who love Walt Disney World in Florida and refuse to go to Disneyland in California (and vice-versa)!

Within the motorcycle community, there are BMW bikers who would rather walk than ride a Harley Davidson (but don’t worry… the feeling is mutual).



To people outside these subcultures, these differences seem almost comical or trivial. But to the people in the midst of these communities, the differences are huge and define who they are. In fact, as these subcultures become more enthusiastic and entrenched in these turf wars, they end up looking more and more bizarre to the general public.

There are times when the consequences of horizontal hostility are even greater and have a deep impact on social change movements. For instance:



Heather Whitestone was the first Deaf Miss America; however, she was protested against by deaf groups because she uses oral English and not American Sign Language… she wasn’t “deaf enough” for her contemporaries. [ref]

Maria Hylton was the first African American Law Professor at Northwestern University and was protested against by the Northwestern Black Student Association because she was too light skinned and not considered “black enough”. [ref]



In recent years, this behavior has accelerated because it is now possible for these subgroups to self organize on the internet. The dark side of finding a community online is that groups can continue to splinter into smaller and more passionate subgroups, having even more stringent rules defining who’s in and who’s out.

This behavior is pervasive within the Church too, and it’s killing us.

The widespread impact of “horizontal hostility” on the Body of Christ is accelerating our collective irrelevance and paving the path toward the decline of the Church.

Unfortunately, it’s relatively easy to find examples of this behavior online. Even a quick search can find fresh examples of Christians within relatively similar communities of the evangelical Christian world sniping at someone else within our same community. Here are some examples:



Jared C. Wilson from Midwestern Seminary publically questions Andy Stanley from NorthPoint Church and his use of the Bible. Ironically, if you compare the statements of faith from both Midwestern & NorthPoint you’ll notice striking similarities due to North Point’s leadership being drawn mostly from the same Southern Baptist circles.

Harvest Bible Chapel Pa...

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