Why?

Why?  Why? Why?  Why do we have to exclude others to prove ourselves right?  Why do we have to dehumanize others in order to hold our own place in the scheme of things?  Why do we demean others so as to lift ourselves up?  Why do we exclude the other?  Why do we cut-off those who differ with us—socially, politically, theologically, philosophically?  Why do we avoid those who are different by separating ourselves from them?  Why do we find it necessary to divide the world into us/them, liberal/conservative, East/West, women/men, young/old, black/brown/white, rich/poor,  etc.  Why?  

Why do we have to be “first” when that means putting others second?  Why do we have to be “right” when that means saying others are wrong?  Why do we think we have a monopoly on privilege, truth, and wisdom, thus denying that possibility to others?  Why do we have to push others down the ladder socially, and in every other way we can, so we can be on the top rung?  Why do we choose exclusion instead of inclusion? Why do we choose inquisition (suppression) rather than reconciliation (compatibility)?

Why?  Because we are in a “fallen state.”  Made a little lower than the angels, we have succumbed to being less human than we were meant to be.  This is the biblical story—a story written by people like you and me—who asked Why?—and attempted in their feeble way to answer that nagging question.  Through the centuries, others have joined in that attempt to understand and to find out why we are what we are instead of what we can potentially become.

The Christian Church (churches of all manner and sorts) according to Charles C. Morrison (What Is Christianity?) “is a society of sinners.  It is the only society in the world, membership in which is based upon the single qualification that the candidate shall be unworthy of membership.”  Alas, members of the churches today have forgotten this basic membership  requirement.  My own denomination (The United Methodist Church) meeting in St. Louis last week decided to exclude rather than include, as the Church has done for centuries.  What a silly notion to think that they have somehow arrived and others have not! Why?  I don’t know why!