error in community

It is my perception that many in the Christian community have done harm toward those outside (and even inside) that community. As a reaction to that, the postmodern innovator has rightly reacted. But sadly in doing so, instead of bringing correction into the community, they have brought error into it. That is, rather than helping us live more rightly among those in need of redemption, they have embraced the faith of the fallen.

In The Reason for God, Tim Keller writes:

Any community that did not hold its members accountable for specific beliefs and practices would have no corporate identity and would not really be a community at all. We cannot consider a group exclusive simply because it has standards for its members. Is that then no way to judge whether a community is open and caring rather than narrow and oppressive? Yes, there is. Here is a far better set of tests: Which community has beliefs that lead its members to treat persons in other communities with love and respect – to serve them and meet their needs? Which community’s beliefs lead it to demonize and attack those who violate their boundaries rather than treating them with kindness, humility, and winsomeness? We should criticize Christians when they are condemning and ungracious to unbelievers. But we should not criticize churches when they maintain standards for membership in accord with their beliefs. Every community must do the same.

Volf writes in Exclusion and Embrace:

Radical indeterminacy … is correlate of a consistent drive toward inclusion that levels all boundaries that divide. [But does this] … not determine from within the idea of inclusion, however? Without boundaries we will be able to know only what we are fighting against but not what we are fighting for. Intelligent struggle against exclusion demands categories and normative criteria that enable us to distinguish between repressive … practices … and nonrepressive ones … “No boundaries” means … neither happiness nor pleasure, neither freedom nor justice, could be identified.

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