In defence of shunning.

I can imagine what the Churchians are saying about this. ‘You cannot talk about this. You cannot be judgmental. Besides, do you not have sins in your life? How dare you call yourself pure’
Actually my imagination is too kind. I’m likely to be called a sexist, a racist, a homophobe and (having been now classed as an udermensch) I can be damned. Just like Ms Birchall, when she offended the liberal pieties.

Freelance writer Julie Burchill, 53, described transgender people as “a bunch of bed-wetters in bad wigs” in a column for the Observer on Sunday (January 13), prompting widespread condemnation.

Former equalities minister Ms Featherstone, now at the Department for International Development, took to Twitter to vent her disgust at Ms Burchill’s view.

She wrote: “Julie Burchill rant against transgender community is absolutely disgusting – a bigoted vomit for which the Observer should sack her.”

Ms Burchill wrote the column in defence of columnist friend Suzanne Moore.

Moore was bombarded with abuse on Twitter after writing a magazine article in which she railed against the pressure for women to look like, as she put it, “Brazilian transsexuals”.

The Observer has since removed the column from their website under the weight of public criticism.

Well, so be it. In today’s reating, we are instructed to shun those who habitually practice evil.

Ephesians 5:1-14

¹Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, ²and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

³But fornication and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints. ⁴Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving. ⁵Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure person, or one who is greedy (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

⁶Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. ⁷Therefore do not be associated with them. ⁸For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light — ⁹for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. ¹⁰Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. ¹²For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; ¹³but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, ¹⁴for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,“Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Paul (I can feel the haters talking about how dare I quote him) argues that we should have nothing to do wht those who do not walk in the light. That group includes the habitually immoral, the greedy, the gossips, those who are salacious and silly. We are supposed to correct each other, and shun those who do not do good.

I think the reason Paul recommends cutting these people off is that shunning is so powerful. We are social things. We generally avoid disapproval, particularly public disapproval. We do not want to be cast out. This human wisn to be part of the tribe is used by every cult to reinforce correct behaviour, and this is not ‘spiritual abuse but the correct thing. It is harsh, yes, but we all have habitual sins we struggle with. Every one of us, and most of them are on that list

(The overweight woman who damns her husband for looking at porn is equally guilty: she is greedy. And if she gossips, refuses to meet his sexual needs or follows foolish teaching that makes her see herself as more than she is, she is in the same boat. Both need to repent: there are more sins than sexual ones. Yes, looking after yourself is work, but you have to do it.

The tone of this blog is somewhat no nonsense, I realize, but I do have sympathy for women fighting the weight battle because I fight the weight battle and I’ve been fighting it for over a decade. Every day. I exercise more than any other person my age that I know. Every day, rain or shine, I go out into the weather and walk for at least and hour and fifteen minutes. Where I live this is not always pleasant. In fact, for 5 months of the year it’s either unpleasant or extremely unpleasant (as in freeze-your-ass-off cold and risk slipping on treacherous sidewalks at all times). Yet I do it – every day. Rain or shine, cold or hot, sick or healthy, I go out there and walk the good walk with my dogs, or my son or my husband. I walk because 11 years ago I realized that I was putting on weight faster than what I’d previously thought possible and was afraid of where it was going. I started walking 30 minutes a day which staved off further weight gain, but didn’t cause me to lose anything. Then it was 45 minutes, then an hour, and now most of the time it’s an hour and a half. I lost the weight.

Now, if our churches want to change things, they are going to have to be offensive. They are going to have to refuse people communion, or call out sins, or stop people from acting in certain ways. They are going to have to have a spine and use the methods of discipline. This is doable. In my local kirk there is a man who compulsively steals. This is known, and the advice is that he can attend kirk, but not home groups — so that the housewives do not need to count their spoons after every visit.