David Hayward shared the above cartoon he created, which depicts a rather literal cookie-cutter type of entrance to the kingdom. The fact that the kingdom’s inhabitants are thus low-budget robots is not without symbolic significance. Once they get in, they sing “Just as I am” – but obviously they have only been accepted “just as they are” because they already fit a particular mode.
This gets at one of the real challenges for progressive and liberal churches. While we want to genuinely welcome people as they are, we also want to offer genuine opportunities for transformation, not to make people in our own image, but to allow them to grow spiritually and morally in their own unique way.
Does your community, religious or otherwise, accept you as you are, and yes neither force you to stay as you are, nor allow you to complacently stagnate as you are? Would you say that the community that you have – in a nearby physical state or online – has helped you to grow and develop and realize your potential more fully?
The community that readers of this blog provide to me has certainly done that, and I wanted to make sure I let you know and expressed my gratitude!
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