Fearless Faith

Separation is hard. Separation that distances – physically, mentally, spiritually – is worse. It is natural to seek answers for such stresses from the church, for it, of all institutions, should champion the value of community and the caretaking of one another. But, our record has not always been stellar in that regard. Examples of persecution under the Christian banner are not exactly new. My own denomination employed the practice of shunning in an earlier life, an incredibly destructive form of discipline that disenfranchised its own members and drove numbers of people from the faith. There...