All In, No Exceptions

The scene is any pastor's dream; people lined up outside the church waiting to get in. But the dream becomes a nightmare when the reason is revealed; two burly men men in black shirts, sunglasses and wearing ear buds along side a velvet rope screening the potential worshipers. The first in line are two men holding hands. The one bouncer says “not you” as the other shows them away. In like manner a person of color and one in a wheelchair are turned out. The well-dressed young white family is let through with a smile.

This was part of a television commercial that the United Church of Christ used recently to tell the world about itself. After seeing people being turned away from church, the voice-over said “Jesus didn't turn people away, neither do we. We are the United Church of Christ. No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you're welcome here.” UCC congregations can be funny mixes of people of various races, classes and sexual orientations; as well as various ideologies, political parties and theologies. Our denomination is “doctrinally free” which means there are no creeds or catechisms that serve at litmus tests for membership. I'm proud to be an ordained minister in a denomination with that message.

Harvard professor Robert Putnam would call what we do by forming community in church “social capital.” In his famous book, “Bowling Alone,” he pointed to a decline in social capital in America. In a recent Boston Globe article, he discussed, with chagrin, the findings of his most recently published study. He found that diversity is a detriment to civic engagement. The study, based on interviews of 30,000 people, found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects.

Sadly, this sounds descriptive of the divisiveness that seems to be running rampant in our culture today. As Doctor Seuss might say, “red state, blue state, me state, you state.” Some (including David Duke) have already used these findings to argue that homogeneous communities are the proper way to live. But descriptions don't need to be prescriptions.

For too long, the only Christian voices heard in our culture, such as Pat Robertson, James Dobson, or the late Jerry Falwell, have been divisive, proclaiming a faith that excludes. When I read the Bible, especially when I look to the example of Jesus, I see a call to a different way. In Genesis 12:2, God blesses Abraham so that he would be a blessing to all the families of the earth. In John 17:21, Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane praying that his disciples might all be one. If that Jesus, who sought out tax collectors, prostitutes and lepers, were standing outside a gated community or at a US border crossing, I could imagine him saying “All in, no exceptions.”

Diversity is challenging. Dialogue is difficult. Our society is diverse and positive social change cannot happen without serious dialogue. We need to learn to accept one another and listen to one another. We need to celebrate when we can find common ground and agree to disagree when we cannot.