Faith: Judge thine own house first

(via the AnamTuras list, by shadwynn@infionline.net, regarding I Cor 5:12-13 [NAB]: "For why should I be judging outsiders? Is it not your business to judge those within? God will judge those outside.")

"What I find fascinating is the fact that [Paul] encourages early Christians to continually exercise their faculty of judgment when it comes to the conduct, lifestyle and public demeanor of fellow Christians.  This was simply common sense: he wanted Christians to display at least an internal consistency of faith and conduct so there would be no confusion as to what Christians practiced as the basic hallmarks of a life of appropriate piety. On the other hand, non-Christians were off-limits. No moral 'uppityness' and looking down one's nose at the lifestyles of the 'heathen'. That was between God and them. What a far cry from fundamentalists who rant and rave and stand in continual public judgment about how the secular, non-Christian mores of our society are supposedly sending this country (USA) collectively into the jaws of a hungry Devil. Paul's attitude was to let God be concerned about the world; Christians had their plate full just keeping their own house in order!"

(The problem is that fundamentalists define themselves in reaction to their enemies, chief among these being modernity and all the complexities that come with it.)