Everybody Gets In
Love, Boundaries, and the Difference Between Inclusion and Permission
I think I finally understand one of the strangest arguments I keep hearing from people who preach Christian love. Apparently, if I say “all are welcome,” some people hear:
“Rapists, predators, abusers and dangerous people should be allowed to do whatever they want.”
No. That isn’t what inclusion means.
All people are worthy of human dignity…AND All behavior is not acceptable.
Those are two completely different ideas.
I can welcome someone who attends another church. I can welcome someone who doesn’t attend church at all. I can welcome someone who calls God by a different name. I can welcome an atheist. I can welcome somebody whose politics, theology, clothing, sexuality, culture, income, education or life story looks nothing like mine. And if that person harms somebody here, threatens people, abuses animals, steals, manipulates, coerces, or violates the safety of this sanctuary?
They can leave.
See how easy that was?
Boundaries do not require bigotry. Safety does not require segregation. Discernment does not require deciding that everyone outside your particular religious circle is a wolf.
What I cannot reconcile is preaching universal divine love while deciding whole groups of people are presumptive threats simply because they believe differently.
People can build communities in countless ways. They can be religious or secular, communal or private, strict or loose, traditional or unconventional.
But when we use the language of love while treating difference itself as danger, I think we should be willing to examine that contradiction.
I don’t claim to get love right all the time either. I get angry. I get hurt. I have boundaries. There are people I don’t particularly want to spend an afternoon with. 😂 But I don’t have to agree with someone, like them, understand them, or invite them into every part of my personal life in order to recognize their humanity.
We can disagree without dehumanizing each other. We can have boundaries without turning everybody outside our circle into an enemy.
This part matters deeply to me:
Ozarks Church of Nature will not require an ideological entrance exam.
- You do not have to agree with me.
- You do not have to worship with me.
- You do not have to believe what I believe.
- You don’t even have to believe.
- Come sit under the tree.
- Walk through the gardens.
- Learn about a plant.
- Teach me something I don’t know.
- Drink some tea.
- Listen to music.
- Be kind.
- Respect other people’s boundaries.
- Don’t hurt anybody.
That’s a pretty manageable doctrine.
Jesus said to love your neighbor. I try to do that and have lived my life as a full time volunteer to ALL. So why do some of the people who preach that message the loudest seem to have so many exceptions to it? PLEASE MAKE IT MAKE SENSE?!?!?! 😂
And the teaching didn’t stop with people we already like, understand, or agree with. Jesus even talked about loving enemies. The Good Samaritan story certainly wasn’t about limiting compassion to the people inside your own religious or cultural circle.
Imagine if, as a first responder, I checked someone’s religion before deciding whether they deserved help. Imagine arriving at an emergency and asking, “Which church do you attend?” before I decided whether to care. That would be horrifying.
A person in pain is a person in pain. A person in danger is a person in danger. Their theology does not determine their humanity. So why would compassion suddenly require a membership card anywhere else?
So I am genuinely asking:
When did “love your neighbor” become “love the approved members of your group and classify everybody else as wolves”?
Because I still cannot find that part.
And until somebody shows it to me, I’ll keep building the other kind of sanctuary…where literally ALL are welcome….and worthy in the eyes of REAL GOD. Believing you are right does not require believing everyone else is dangerous.
At this church, Everybody gets in…But everybody behaves accordingly.
God did NOT define a religion anyone MUST follow. Men created religion in THEIR image, rather than God creating us in “his” image….did they even read the book they like to beat us with? Are there bibles circulating that EXCLUDE humans because they don’t go to the same church? Like what was the story of Jesus then anyway…..? How is exclusion and separatism helping anyone??? Has Jesus been rewritten too???
When did loving and serving ALL, regardless of beliefs become a thing? Why didn’t I get that memo? ???And why is hatred celebrated
I hate to say it, but I have yet to find one church that accepts people who aren’t already exactly like them…SOME even who said they would KILL their neighbors if their church voted on it.
I didn’t build the Ozarks Church of Nature and Magical Food Forest with the intention of making a church….but I got tired of watching everyone be excluded, slandered, harassed, stalked, false reported on and many other un-Christian like behaviors…….so what other choice did I have?
The Jesus I know LOVES ALL! He served ALL. And here’s one more VERY unpopular opinion I live my life by……REAL GOD IS LOVE IS GOD! And GOD LOVES ALL!!! Are we all not his children? Can someone please show me in the book where we are to shun our neighbors based on perceived beliefs??? Is refusing to help your neighbor who thinks different Godly? Does that get one closer to God? Cause if so….I want nothing to do with that hateful, jealous, vengeful, punishing “god.”
By their fruits you will know them. Who is producing healthy fruit?
That’s where actions speak louder than words. Simply reciting a few bible verses here and there does NOT make one an exclusive member to The Divine.