Is the Core Sin… Exclusion?
Is the Core Sin… Exclusion?
A Quickish Aside, by Lora A. Copley
I can’t write about sin without touching on what progressive theologies would have us think about exclusion. Richard Rohr, a leading teacher in progressivism, suggests exclusion is the “core sin”. (1) He argues:
“we must concentrate on including – as Jesus clearly did-- instead of excluding – which he never did. The only thing Jesus excluded was exclusion itself. Do check me out on that and you might see I’m correct.” (2)
As invited, I did check Rohr out on that. And he’s not correct. Here’s some of what Jesus excludes. He…
Excluded false prophets and false disciples, with “I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.” (Matthew 7:15-23)
Excluded those who “do what is evil.” “The Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son… those who do what is evil will rise to be condemned… my judgment is just.” (John 5:22,29-30)
Excluded Jezebel and her ilk in Thyatira who tolerate sexual immorality and idolatry. (Rev. 2:20-23)
Excluded those with unwashed robes. Jesus says, “Outside are the dogs and sorcerers, the sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” (Revelation 22:15)
Excluded the world from his high priestly prayer: “I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” (John 17:9)
We could also mention exclusion in Jesus’ parables:
Excluding the man without wedding garments: “Throw him outside, into the darkness…. For many are invited, but few are chosen.” Mt 22:13-14
Excluding unprepared virgins- and unseeing goats- in Matthew 25.
Excluding unfruitful branches: “Such branches are thrown into the fire and burned.” John 15:6
Excluding bad fish and the enemy’s weeds in Matthew 13.
(Here’s one that won’t be a cross-stich.) Jesus has the king reply, “But my enemies who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.” (Lk 19:27)
Shall we keep going? There’s excluding those trying to enter the narrow door, in Luke 13:22-30, “but you yourselves thrown out.” Excluding merchants who made the temple “a den of robbers” in John 2. Excluding even those seeking healing! In Mark 1, Jesus responded to “everyone is looking for you” with a “let’s go somewhere else.” (Mark 1:37)
These are hard words. I wince too. But here’s the point:
The compassion that we seek will never be found outside Jesus. It may seem kind and non-judgmental to say, as Rohr does, “don’t waste time rejecting, excluding, eliminating, or punishing anyone or anything. Everything belongs.” (3) But Miroslav Volf famously declared, “it takes the quiet of a suburban home” (4) to be comforted by such an idea. When women are raped, children are trafficked, abuse terrifies, abortion destroys, and genocide digs mass graves, (just for starters-not to mention the resident evil in my own heart), will we dare say nothing is to be rejected, excluded, and judged?
Because Jesus is so good, He excludes.
And it’s a sin to say otherwise.
Citations
1 From Rohr’s “Alternative Orthodoxy” blog. Entry June 1, 2017. “Everything Belongs.” https://cac.org/everything-belongs-2017-06-01/
2 Rohr, The Universal Christ, pg 34. (Emphasis Rohrs.)
3 From Rohr’s “Alternative Orthodoxy” blog. Entry June 1, 2017. “Everything Belongs.” https://cac.org/everything-belongs-2017-06-01/
4 Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, pg 304.
Note: The full quote from this Croatian theologian is worth reading: “a belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many Christians, especially theologians in the West. To the person who is inclined to dismiss it, I suggest imagining you are delivering a lecture in a war zone. Among your listeners are people whose cities and villages have been first plundered, then burned and leveled to the ground, whose daughters and sisters have been raped, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit….Soon you would discover it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence corresponds to God’s refusal to judge. In a scorched land, soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die. And as one watches it die, one will do well to reflect about many other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind.”
(Apologist Sean McDowell echoes these ideas in his book The Beauty of Intolerance. McDowell made a T-shirt challenging moral relativism to the effect that Mother Theresa was intolerant of poverty. Mandela of apartheid. MLK of racism. I wonder if God’s T-shirt would be Proverbs 6:16-19? Those hard words too show His beauty and love.)