Sometimes an article finds the conversation it was written to make possible.
After a short summer pause, SpEx begins again with one of those conversations.
In early June, I published How ‘Inclusive’ Church Excludes. It has since become, by a considerable margin, the most-read, most-shared and most-commented-on piece I have published here.
One of the most unexpected responses came from Dennis Sanders, host of Church and Main. Dennis is an openly gay minister and lead pastor of First Christian Church of St Paul, an open and affirming congregation within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
His podcast explores the intersection of religion and public life, with particular attention to mainline Protestantism. For readers outside the United States, “mainline” refers to the historic American Protestant denominations—such as Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians and the Disciples of Christ—which once occupied the centre of American Protestant life. Unlike the evangelical world, many are now more progressive and wrestling with major questions about identity, mission, and their future.
Given the title of my article, and the different places from which Dennis and I approach some questions of inclusion, I wondered what kind of conversation awaited me.
I need not have worried.
Dennis had read the article with real charity. He was gentle, kind, thoughtful and deeply hospitable. He did not reach for the thought-terminating instruction to “just be kind and inclusive”, or treat me as a problem to be defeated. Instead, he modelled precisely what I had hoped the article might make possible: a patient conversation willing to remain with the deeper questions.
Inclusion into what?
We discovered that we shared more concerns than either of us might have expected. The Church does not include people into “inclusion”. It welcomes us into Christ: into relationship with Jesus, into his body and into the life he gives. Jesus cannot simply be recruited to endorse demands and commitments decided elsewhere.
And yes, that does not settle every disagreement. But it does give Christians somewhere genuinely Christian from which to start and collaborate constructively.
It was a privilege and a delight to talk with Dennis. I found our conversation generous and illuminating, and I hope you will listen.
Listen to When Inclusive Church Excludes on Church and Main
You can also read—or revisit—the article that began the conversation:
Read How ‘Inclusive’ Church Excludes
New articles return next week, beginning with a rather different question:
Do we have guardian angels? And, if we do, what exactly do they do for us and why?
Thank you for reading, and for being here.
P.S. The photo Dennis found to use of me isn’t exactly my favourite—it’s from my Father Christmas phase. 🎅