Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Naked Jesus

Home
Progressive Christian
Is Exclusion Persecution?

Is Exclusion Persecution?

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 8:12 am by John O'Keefe

Is Exclusion Persecution? 2017-04-26T08:12:40-05:00 John O'Keefe

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

TNJ-2017-2 I normally don’t listen to Preachers on the radio. Why? Well, to say it kindly, they don’t speak to me; they always start in one place, love, and end in another place, judgement and law; besides, I find most rather boring, and unrealistic. Most of what they say is off base from what Jesus shares in the Collective Narrative. Now, you can disagree with me, and that’s fine, but let me share an example.

Our neighbor’s granddaughter was being baptized yesterday, and the little girl asked if I would attend. I knew the church, its style, would drive me crazy, but how can anyone turn down the request of a child? I can’t. I knew the service was not going to be something I would get a great deal out of, so I figured I would listen to the radio on my way to the church; I just decided not to hook my phone in, and listen to my play list, so the radio was the next best thing, it was easy. I started searching for a station where I could enjoy the music, but, as fate would have it, I came upon Charles Stanley speaking about how American Christians are persecuted by their non-Christian friends – I just had to listen.

While Charles was speaking, he mentioned that Christians in America are persecuted when their ‘non-Christian” friends don’t invite them to their activities [kind of like not being invited to the reindeer games]. He said, ‘Being excluded from non-Christian activities was persecution from those non-Christians to Christians.’ He went on to explain that exclusion is persecution. My first thought was, ‘Really? Exclusion is persecution?’ My mind started to swirl in a world wind of possibilities, what came to my mind in the moment was, ‘If the church teaches, exclusion is to be persecuted, and the historical church has excluded so many, is the church guilty of persecution?’

The answer is yes.

For centuries, the church has excluded many people who don’t fit the mold of what they see as a ‘good Christian;’ women, the poor, the homeless, the outsiders, people within the LGBTQ community, those who think differently from the institutional church, pretty much anyone who are different from those who attend their church. A long time ago, a Pastor told me he was unconcerned with the poor in his community, because, to paraphrase his words, ‘Those people had a church they could attend on the other side of town.’

Exclusion has been a hallmark of the church for millennium; we all know it. Well, we know it if we look around our church on any given Sunday.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Previous Post

April 12, 2017

Following Makes You A Follower

Next Post

April 22, 2017 Why I Fear A Christian Nation

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abuse bad Bad Theology Blue Christian Karma Christmas Church Clinton Coming Out Day Cruz Dance Dangerous Church Discrimination Disruptive Faith disruptive peace Disrutive Church Doctrine Dominionism Evangelism Faith Fun good grace Hell Hillary Inclusive Justice Keller Leadership love Messy Church Missional New Parable Open Peace Play Politics Prayer Progressive racism random Safe Church Sessions Story Theology Trump truth Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2019 December 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 December 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 October 2015 August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does 1 John say God is, and in Him is no darkness at all?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Spirit Light Love Truth