Editorial June 5, 2017 Issue

All are welcome

Robin Hoagland

This inclusive phrase graces the signs of many houses of worship but seems especially fitting for Churches of Christ, Scientist, around the world. As a Church founded by a woman who knew what it was to be publicly criticized, marginalized, and even made homeless for her religious convictions, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and its branches open their doors to all humanity. It is an invitation without qualifications. Please, it says, come in.

There is nothing new in this warm welcome. Millennia ago Deuteronomy instructed: “Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt” (10:19). The hardship of one’s own experience should impel a compassion for others, cultivating a right relationship not just with our neighbor but with God, who is Love itself. Be expansive, be inclusive, be generous with what you have—this is what the Bible was establishing as a guiding precept for the children of Israel.

Jesus magnified this in his own ministry with both those who were Jewish and those who were not. All witnessed the power of Christ-healing to lift human life out of suffering and disease.

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Bible Lens—June 5–11, 2017