The “We’re In, You’re Out” Mentality

There's a fascinating discussion going on at the Leadership Journal's Out of Ur blog on evangelicalism and emerging theology. I guess it's really only fascinating if you're into deep philosophical/theological type discussions, but I found it interesting. Two paragraphs in David Fitch's article particularly resonated with me:

I believe one weakness in evangelicalism that the emerging church is responding to is evangelicalism's excessively rationalist approach to truth and salvation that birthed a stubborn "we're in/you're out" mentality. There has been an impulse in evangelical fundamentalism towards (a) an intolerant judgmental exclusivism, (b) an arrogant, even violent, certainty about what we do know, and (c) a hyper-cognitive gospel that takes the mystery out of everything.

Many of us grew up with this. This was most obvious in the way we made hell the selling point of the gospel. We said if you do A and B, you’ll be pardoned from sin and escape hell. Those who do not do A or B are going to hell. We built an apologetic that defended this to prove to people outside the church they were doomed. It came off arrogant, coercive, unloving, and indeed antithetical to the very nature of the gospel. In a world of democratic pluralism, the gospel's witness became shut off, dispassionate, and downright sectarian. It became impossible to represent such a gospel as "good news."

While I don't consider myself 'emerging' and certainly not 'emergent', I think these insights are very accurate. How often have we presented the Good News as nothing more than 'fire insurance' and then we wonder why people believe they're 'safe' and don't have to actually follow Jesus and become more like him! Does this help explain the existence of so-called 'Christians' who think being arrogant and critical are examples of discernment and spiritual maturity?
And we wonder why Christianity has such a bad reputation.