“There are few joys in life like being wanted, chosen, embraced. There are few pains like being excluded, rejected, left out. At the core of Christian community is the choice, in the words of Miroslav Volf’s great book on the subject, between exclusion and embrace.”- John Ortberg
“Of all the passions the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet very bad do very bad things.”- C. S. Lewis
In Chapter 10 (“Breaking Down Barriers: Inclusion”) of Everybody’s Normal . . ., John Ortberg talks about a tendency deep inside the fallen human spirit. The tendency to exclude. Above all, in the act of exclusion we divide the world between ‘us’ and ‘them.’
However, these terms point out more than the simple fact that we’re different. Differences often enrich community. And, John cautions, through using these terms we adopt a posture of rejection and withdrawal toward the others.
C. S. Lewis once wrote a brilliant essay on this subject titled ‘The Inner Ring.’ Every society, school, church, and workplace consist of little groups of people on the ‘inside.’ No formal vote takes place to decide who gets in. Rather, subtle things reflect membership status. But once inside, you discover that further rings are inside.
Most significantly, John finds the desire to gain status through joining a higher-status Inner Ring deeply dangerous. Because this desire leads us to:
- consistently compare ourselves to others.
- feel anguish when we get left out.
- feel deeper anguish when someone else close to us gets ushered in.
- experience a little pleasure surge when we think we’re in a more inner ring that somebody else.
In conclusion, John stresses:
“The Inner Ring turns out to be like an onion. Once we make it to a certain circle, we find out there is yet another one. But no circle is so far inside it can confer on us that sense of permanent worth we want so badly, because inside we know we’re still the same person. Groucho Marx once said he would never join a club whose standards were so low they would let someone like him become a member.”
Today’s question: What Bible verses help you choose between exclusion and embrace? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Walling in or walling out”