'Us' and 'them' a dialectic tension that could lead to growth or abuse - religion could be both the problem and the solution.

In a post I wrote two days ago on religious fundamentalism I got a wonderful comment from Simon G... Here's his comment on my post, and my response to him. What do you think? Can we differentiate without objectifying others? Is it healthy, or unhealthy? And, if we do so, how do we guard against abuse?

This is a fascinating quote because it starts from the premise you can split people into good and bad. I would suggest all bad things done in the name of religion start with exactly this sort of us and them split.

Christ said love you neighbour as yourself -- that needs to be without making a judgement on whether my neighbour is good or bad.

Yes, we all have tendency to split people into groups and label them - Hitchens included (good and bad). There lies the smooth highway to apartheid, ethnic cleansing, gay bashing, jihad and concentration camps. We are all capable of perpetrating these, they aren't the prerogative of a special group of people.

Trouble is some grouping and labelling is social acceptable and much is socially acceptable in the church, we need to fight this tendency with all vigour and pray the Holy Spirit will give us a renewed and Christ like vision of our neighbour.

Here's my comment to Simon:

Simon,

Thank you for this thought provoking comment. I agree with the sentiment entirely, and am particularly struck by the fact that such 'objectification' and categorization is exactly what leads to abuse.

However, I do wonder how one becomes critical (whether be self critical, or critical of groupings, structures, or individuals) in a healthy manner in order to bring about change for the good of all humanity and ultimately God's intended Glory in the Kingdom?

The methodology of prayer that you mention is certainly a core element of such an approach - it is something that I do daily in private and with groups as I have chance. However, I do believe that there must be something more tangible that can help us to do 'mission to the Church', as Karl Barth's missiology suggests...

I think that sometimes the answer of 'prayer conversion' creates a soft barrier the differentiates 'true believers' from 'false believers', even within the church.

Ultimately religion, which comes from the Latin word re - ligio (ligio is the root word for the English 'ligament' which means in Latin to 'bind' or 'hold together') does have a binding effect. At first it is comforting since the 'binding' gives structure and security, but sadly there frequently comes a 'tipping point' where religion goes from being a comfortable binding agent that brings people together, to a restrictive and exclusive binding agent that holds some persons captive, and excludes those who need more freedom.

So, the long and the short of my response is this - I agree that we need to be careful of hap-hazard objectification, but there does need to be some graciously realistic method of understanding, articulating, and dealing with sinful individuals, groups, and structures (both within 'us' and within 'them'). This will help us to grow and become more Christlike.

Perhaps the secret is the attitude that you spoke of, which comes from the Holy Spirit? I thought of Phil 2:5 as I read your comment "... consider others better than yourself..."

Thanks once again from the comment!

Dion

So, what do you think!?