I read an interesting article the other day in The Wall Street Journal talking about the need for reformation in the Muslim religion. The article described different types of Muslims and claimed the majority of Muslims living in the West try “to protect their faith by attempting to wall off outside influences, permitting only Islamic education for their children and disengaging from the wider non-Muslim community.”
The act of isolating oneself from a larger community is not only a Muslim defensive mechanism, many Christians do the same. Because the Christian community is so much larger in the West, it’s effects are not as prominent but the impact is the same. There are people everywhere who feel excluded, lonely, and afraid to enter a Christian faith community who only accept people of like minds. There is a huge sense of separation resulting from the judgement between Christian faiths and our ability to be worthy of God’s grace. Some Christians even spend time trying to convert other Christians to their branch of faith ~ what kind of love is that? What does it say about the unity of our faith? How can we be strong when we try and weaken one another?
We will find a growing population of people feeling hurt, isolated, misunderstood, rejected and afraid, joining forces of fear rather than love to fulfill the need to feel safe, a sense of belonging and respect unless we make some changes in our own acceptance of others and live as Jesus taught us. Reformation is needed in any faith that encourages their members to love only to those who are similar to them or who are willing to be similar to them. Jesus told us to love one another without exception. It is our best defense to keep us strong, united and at peace.
Years ago I worked with the most at risk juvenile offenders in my community. I came across many gang members, saw their family situations, knew their poverty and struggle with education and saw just how enticing belonging to a gang would be to these children.
Gangs offer acceptance into a group, a way to prove your worth, they give assignments that require learning new skills but show their faith in you, they give each person a purpose and a sense of belonging, and probably most alluring is they promise protection to it’s members.
Gangs provide our kids with the basic needs of every individual and they do it better than a gang member’s family, school, church and the wider community. They are a group of young adults looking for a way to feel important, valued, secure, respected and cared for. Despite creating a mission to defend their territory against a made up threat, everyone feels as though they belong to an important mission. Our mission as Christians is to love one another ~ so how do we reach these people and light a fire in their hearts for a spiritual calling that brings peace?
It reminds me of the young people joining extremist groups who offer them money, homes, wives in the name of an ethnic cleansing of sorts. These people did not feel connected in their larger world communities, they did not feel accepted, understood, loved or respected and they found a mission that would provide just what they were needing through violence and warfare in the name of God.
If we are to stop the spread of terrorism, stop the violence of gangs, we need to provide those same basic needs to EVERYONE in our community in a loving, nonviolent, non-judgmental way. Do people feel a sense of belonging? Do people feel safe to express themselves without judgement? Are people’s skills and talents fully utilized so they feel worthy? Most importantly, do people experience a sense of personal security ~ acceptance for who they are?
It is extremely hard to offer love and acceptance to people in your community when people are isolating themselves.
I lived in a community once that was largely a Muslim community. Although my heart told me I should make an effort to reach out to my neighbors, I was unsure how to do so. The men walked around freely and I could have normal conversations with them but the women would only come out of their homes at night when the darkness hid them. They kept their drapes closed throughout the day and sent their children out to play unsupervised in order to remain unseen.
I did not want to approach my Muslim neighbors because of pure ignorance. I didn’t know if they would want to talk to me, I didn’t want the women to be put in a position where I could unknowingly ask them to do something against their faith (could they leave their home during the day and join me for tea? for example) and I didn’t want to offend them in any way. My ignorance kept a barrier in place. Fear kept away any chance for love to be given to my neighbor.
It leads me to ask, when Christians create isolated communities of our own, how can non-christians and even other christians feel safe, secure, loved or welcome? How can we invite anyone in unless our doors are open to everyone without any judgement? We may say our doors are open but are they open to people who believe differently than us? Is it a requirement that they become the same rather than offer their differences to the community?
There is a fine line between developing a loving supportive community because we are the same and developing a loving supportive community despite our differences.
Mother Mary was strongly influenced by the community of Essenes and they were well known for their ability to find value and utilize everyone in the community to thrive, not just survive. They had the extraordinary ability to grow a variety of foods in the harshest of climates which they shared with neighboring communities. They also were known for their healing capabilities as well as their massive library of ancient wisdom. Their communities were often physically isolated from large cities but they kept their doors open for everyone to visit because they offered themselves in service. Outside communities would come to them for food, healing and even respite.
It makes one wonder if Jesus asked his disciples to give up everything ~ even their family to join his work, how much of that was the Essene culture? The Essenes considered everyone in their community their family members, all that they had was given up to the community, one’s possessions belonged to everyone, they lived as though they were one body making sure everyone’s needs were met and they were living fully.
We as Christians in particular are called to love one another ~ everyone no matter their race, creed, faith, sex, or ability. And the love God calls us to give is not given upon conditions of faith, ethnicity, sexual orientation or age. It is given unconditionally. Jesus even showed us, we are called to love those who think, act and pray differently than we do when he spent time with tax collectors, prostitutes and non-believers.
Logically, it makes perfect sense for communities to congregate and develop internal support systems. I believe doing so offers many great benefits as long as it doesn’t include isolation or judgement.
Judgment is always rooted in fear and judgment isolates one person from another. Love and fear are mutually exclusive. Love cannot exist in the same heart that holds fear. Therefore we need to fill our hearts with love – a perfect love that expels all fear and our communities should do the same.
When was the last time you entered a church who taught there is more than one right way to love God? Probably never. Yet every single denomination and even individual churches have their way to do things “right.” This shrouds the church with judgement upon others that drives away people, promotes fear and eliminates the love God intended. We all have our own truths that God has shown us and God has asked us not to judge. We act from fear, not love when we isolate ourselves or others from us in the name of faith.
To follow Jesus’ call to love one another we are called to eliminate judgement. Love is non-judgmental and does not seek it’s own interests. Our judgement fuels isolation when in fact, we are called to be ONE body in Christ.
Whatever one part of our body does, it effects every cell in the rest of the body. If one part of the body tries to separate themselves from the others, the entire organism becomes unhealthy. Think of the hand trying to separate itself from the body – perhaps it won’t allow the blood to flow through it or the nerves to be felt and eventually that part of the body dies. God wants all parts of our body to thrive – we need our hand as much as anything else. Therefore we must make sure each part knows their worth, their importance, their gifts and talents and skills and that we appreciate each others differences.
When one faith tries to separate itself from everyone else, it is our job to go and love and bring them back. God does not call us to all be the same, he calls us to be ONE. We don’t need to convert others to be ONE through any other method than our love. Like the prodigal son returning home, we are called to love and celebrate our family, our oneness, despite our differences.
I recall attending a bible study in college where the leader put together all the quotes they could find about how we should surround ourselves with believers. I challenged them to look at Christ who infamously broke barriers of hanging out with tax collectors, prostitutes and non-believers. His faith did not waiver because of it and in fact, I have found the same to be true in my own life.
For a multitude of reasons, spending time with people who hold different beliefs from my own has been incredibly powerful in increasing my own understanding of faith and deepening my relationship with God. I would not be where I am today if I had not been challenged to think about why I believe what I believe through my conversations with those who believed differently.
Our faith grows stronger when it provides for us the security, love and acceptance we need to live fully. If we don’t feel secure or loved or accepted (usually as a result of judgement), our faith will be influenced by those who do provide such things.
The one thing the disconnected groups do not offer their recruits is love. In fact they discourage love. So what is our best defense? Love! Love is more powerful than anything – “love does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. LOVE NEVER FAILS.” 1Corinthians 13:5-8(NIV)
I believe that when we isolate ourselves to shield ourselves from people who believe differently from us, we are living from a state of fear rather than a state of love. Using our religion as an excuse for making ourselves feel more worthy than others or making others feel unworthy is divisive and is similar to rejecting a part of your body.
The world would be full of peace if we left the judgement of others words, actions and beliefs to God.
As Christians, our goal should be to love others as Jesus taught us to love unconditionally, with patience, and kindness, without being boastful or self serving. Most importantly, if we could reach out and love those who are isolated from our community, people wouldn’t need to turn to violence or fear based modalities to get their basic needs met.
How do we do that? Be unafraid to reach out to others. Be unafraid to form friendships with your neighbors. Eliminate judging others. 
Practice seeing the good in everyone and sharing it with others. Serve. Jesus and his mother Mary lived their lives to serve others ~ that is how people knew they were loved.
We can change the state of the world today through love. An unconditional love offered to others is what we are called to give. Love is what offers peace, a sense of belonging, security and acceptance. By loving one another, we meet the needs of those who are filled with fear, doubt and anxiety. Remember, love and fear are mutually exclusive. Let us fill our hearts and the hearts of others with love.
Go and create wonderful, beautiful open communities that support, love and challenge you in ways that bring you closer to God, that expel all your fears and allow you to love others unconditionally.
May we be not afraid of others who are different from us so that we isolate ourselves from them or isolate them from us. May we love all our brothers and sisters as Jesus taught us – unconditionally so they feel welcome, loved and worthy to be a part of the one body we are called to be. May we feel loved, worthy and secure in ourselves, our family, our community and our faith so we never have to look beyond God to fill our basic needs. May there be peace in the world with no boundaries.