How many Christians realize that when Jesus told the parable of the shepherd leaving the ninety nine sheep to find the one that was lost he was saying we must sometimes leave the church to comfort those whom Christians have rejected?
Jesus said our love should be like the sun’s that rises upon the good and the evil, or like the rain that falls upon the just and unjust. The word “church” in Greek means “called out.” We are not defined by closed boundaries but by inclusive horizons. The church is not a gated community of insiders, it is a temple consisting of stones the builders have rejected. A church of purists and insiders is a contradiction in terms.
If the church rejects someone for the supposed crime of honest doubt, it is not the movement Jesus was talking about.
If a church shuns a member for loving their transgender child, it is not the movement Jesus was talking about.
If there were even one soul in hell, a true follower of Jesus would not enter the gates of heaven until that last missing member of the human family were included.
Love calls us not to sectarian religion, but to universal love.