thanks ..

in mouthing my personal feelings toward the church which, for the most part, fails to include the marginalized, and therefore resists the very mode of Jesus' ministry, I've failed to acknowledge that there are churches who do ..

not many; a few; but there are ..

i know personally of 2
and i want to express my sincere appreciation for them and for the leaderships' forging and moulding a people towards an understanding of the term 'neighbour' and Jesus' injunction to do for 'the least of these' in Jesus' name

it's not an easy thing to include 'abnormal' people, and to treat them as people, include them and love them as we do the 'normal', or to teach the 'normal' members what it means to love and include ..
we humans gravitate towards tribal, accepted, our clique, and sneer at those who walk outside those lines
we christian humans do that
religion tends to be isolationist and clubbish, the in vs. out, the righteous vs. the wicked ..

Jesus was absolutely outside religion of that sort
he soundly renounced rejection and exclusion
in fact he went outside the camp (Jerusalem, where was the Jewish temple) to offer his body a sacrifice

we ought to spend some time in the Gospels
maybe that would justify (original sense) our misled, mistaught, socially-misdirected, religiously-misdirected view of what Jesus was about, and redirect it towards all, in love

..

it is worth noting that, at one time, we gentiles (non-jews) were outside the people of God ..
Jesus broke down that wall of separation by the sacrifice of himself for all people everywhere over all time
apostle Paul speaks to the fact that there is no division or distinction on any basis anymore - male/female, bond/free, Jew/Gentile, rich/poor ..
all people now stand on the same level in God's sight

..

thank you to those 2 pastors/leaders
who see the needy as Jesus sees them - the result of a sin-infected world, embracing them lovingly, as human, bearers of Godimage like us, deserving of our love and compassionate care, and that more so because of their situation ..
we should offer more care to the weak ..

" In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care.
So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. "   (1Corintinas 12.22 ff.)

true religion, says James and the author of Hebrews and Paul, is found in visiting the sick and those in prison, caring for the orphan and the widow ..
not mouthing our christianity in some attempt to convert people, pointing out their sins, but living our christianity in order to model Jesus, the saviour of mankind


thanks to them and those like them, there is still hope for the church
and i am very thankful