Today's Gospel of Inclusion comes from fundamentalist John Shelby Spong.
Praise to you, wellspring of ourselves.
Let me say this carefully, but clearly. Anyone who elevates their prejudices to the position where they are defended as the will of God is evil.
Anybody who justifies their denigration of another person's being based upon a quotation from an ancient sacred text called the Word of God is simply out of touch with contemporary scholarship.
Anybody who will not open themselves to the new knowledge readily available in medical and scientific circles because it calls into question their uninformed attitudes is profoundly ignorant.
There is no dialogue that is possible in those circumstances, and any attempt to engage in some form of dialogue is doomed to failure. In the process of seeking to do so, truth is not well served, integrity is compromised and one's deepest convictions are violated.
This is the Gospel of Inclusion.
Glory to thee, conformer to our scientific knowledge.
Posted by Clifton at November 22, 2003 09:41 AM | TrackBackWell, what can I say? I think he said it all; "There is no dialogue that is possible in those circumstances, and any attempt to engage in some form of dialogue is doomed to failure."
Posted by: Erica at November 22, 2003 02:09 PMI have one addendum to offer, and one only: I would not term this inclusion, but rampant exclusivism, albeit from the other direction.
Other than that, my reaction is the same as it usually is with that man: ew.
Posted by: Jane Ellen at November 22, 2003 07:07 PMJane Ellen:
That is precisely my point: the so-called Gospel of Inclusion is little more than the painted and prettified face of another sort of exclusion.
I'm simply trying to highlight the hypocrisy.
Yes, I got that; and this is arguably your most egregious example to date.
So there's the struggle: to remember that I am called to love, even in the face of exclusivist claptrap, and even those with whom I violently disagree.
And this guy sure doesn't make it easy.
Posted by: Jane Ellen at November 22, 2003 09:43 PM