Scenario: A prominent Christian man accosts a woman who, in his opinion, has acted badly and committed a sin against the church and God. The man yells at the woman: "you must ask God for forgiveness". The woman turns to the man and replies: "No I don't need to. God doesn't condemn me".
The words hit a raw nerve in me: why is it that (too) often people are condemned by the church and Christians? Especially when the Master we follow made it pretty clear that he "did not send his Son into the world to condemn".
I have cringed too many times as I have heard (or read) a self-appointed protector of a religio-centric moral code condemn and exclude people thereby marginalising and belittling them. A wise man once challenged me by saying: "show them Jesus and He will tell them what is right and wrong, not you."
The God I strive to know is not mean and exclusivist, a God who wins disciples through fear: the agenda of the Architect (I think) has always been, and remains, inclusion through grace.
