how far is too far...

So, I was going through my ritual of checking job sites, email, facebook, and got around to checking my blog-roll, which is usually quite enjoyable. Brian McLaren often has good things to share or points his readers to other blogs/sites of interest. I followed a link from one of his recent posts to this blog which expresses lament over the recent "pew poll" about torture that has gotten a lot of attention. While most of the blog/prayer resonated with me (I think we should think and pray long and hard about how/if we think of/justify the use of torture in light of our faith and the example of Jesus), the end of the prayer included a sentiment that bothered me deeply in other ways:

"There are times when a church so badly misunderstands what it means to be church that it must be repudiated as fundamentally ungodly, fundamentally a negation of true Christianity. This has sometimes been called a status confessionis moment — a situation where the basic integrity of the gospel and the core witness of the church are at stake. Jesus, I believe this is one such moment.

Any church — congregation, parachurch organization, denomination, or group of individual Christians — that supports torture has violated its confessed allegiance to you and can no longer be considered part of your true church. Let them be anathema."

The church I've been a part of for a few months now had a related conversation in our study yesterday morning about how we "in-group" or "out-group" people based on the ideas/thoughts/beliefs/values/etc. they hold. We're willing to label someone as non-Christian pretty quickly over many things that (may) have little or nothing to do with following Jesus. I think the above mentioned poll and the blog referenced that is a response to that are directly related to that conversation.

Does holding the position or opposing the position that our government should have policies that allow those involved in national security matters to torture people for information affirm or negate my decision to follow Christ? Obviously, some will (and have) said, "Yes," and others, "No." Is this only a political issue? Only a moral issue? These are not easy questions.

It's impossible to get inside the heads of all the Christians who took this poll and hear (much less, understand) where they're coming from and how they came to their conclusions. While I feel that our government and various agencies can go too far in the name of national security, I also believe that we, as Christians, can go too far in our response to those that, after much (or little) thought come out on the opposite side of an issue.

Again, these are not easy questions... but I do hope that they lead us to much prayer and reflection and an ever-increasing trust that the Spirit will guide us toward all truth and closer to the heart of God.