The Outcast and the Christ

Yesterday I watch Borgen with my flatmate. It was very interesting and in one section the Prime Minister was challenged if she should continue to be PM because she was a women. She delivered a speech in parliament which focused on woman that liberated the Danish parliament in 1918. She said something that got my mind going. She said "She could not believe that some people could speak in this way about the role of Women in parliament. Surely people who hear this conversation can only assume that these people are 100 years out of date"

Wow how powerful is that one line.

In the UK the idea of same sex marriage and a bill has been passed that homosexuals should receive equal rights as married couples has been met with disdain in some quarters. The first group to condemn this action was the Church of England, but there was also a traditional wing of the Tories that were upset cause this bill was against the institution of marriage. About three months ago, there was a decision that women could not be bishops in the Church of England.

This whole thing has got me thinking about society, the church, Jesus, and the outcast. Now most of us would recognise that central to Jesus' message was a sense that the outcast had a special place in the community of God. Those who were out had a place in the Kingdom of God. This radical way of thinking caused a stir and to a large extent led to the crucifixion. It was God inviting those who are out in.

The early church, understood this and this led to the debate of circumcision being sidelined. We look back at this history and realise that those who hold onto this notion of Christianity are horribly out of date. I wonder if we are in one of these times with regards to Woman and Homosexuals. How does the church respond when the society that they live in seems to be more gracious than their God? When the society is more gracious and accepting the outcast that followers of the Christ? Maybe this is why the church seems to becoming so irrelevant? People look at them (Esp on the issue of woman) and think you're over a hundred years out of date!