Border Patrol

I gained a whole new respect for our church’s associate pastor when yesterday at lunch she complained that clergy are defrocked (or whatever the Lutheran equivalent of defrocking is) for sexual or financial misconduct but never for heresy! She is quite “liberal” on issues of sexuality and the like, so this was surprising to me.

But, really, this is just common sense. In any community there always has to be some degree of “policing” if the community is to maintain a coherent identity. Complete openness or “inclusivity” is not in itself an identity. An entity without borders or boundaries, something that differentiates itself from the surrounding environment, is nothing at all.

Which is why it can’t be a good sign when a church adopts as its motto something like “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.” (This is not to pick on the UMC. I’m sure the ELCA would’ve loved to have that slogan if it wasn’t already taken. Instead we got stuck with “Living in God’s amazing grace” which actually mentions God! And Grace! How exclusionary! What about all those works-righteous atheists?? How will that make them feel?)

If the church is going to be “counter-cultural,” to offer an alternative to the world, then its life will have to have a definite, concrete shape. And this will, of necessity, exclude certain things. And this entails the necessity of things like, well, heresy trials. Doesn’t it?