OK, so my Apostate Daily Text thread simply lay there and died. It's still a good idea, ain't it? Hah?
Today's text:
A (fictional) first-century reply to 1 Corinthians
Beloved [Apostle] Paul,
...I find that if I just shun someone, my shunning them does not have the effect that shunning seems to have for you. Maybe it worked well in your Greek boarding school, where as a Jewish boy you were under perpetual risk of exclusion. For me as a Corinthian, uncircumcised Christian, shunning would not be as effective. More importantly, as a Christian, I don't want to be petty or vindicative. At my best -- at our best as a community -- we are not God; we do not fully know the human heart. Christianity will have some horrendous periods if through the centuries ahead we promote witch trials and public scaffolds. Some might even miss our defining priority, which you have already named so poignantly.
...Meanwhile, although they [the couple mentioned in 1 Cor. 5] may have to leave our congregation, may even have to go to jail, I want to treat them with the love that God has for them. So do you, I realize, for you said that real love holds them accountable. I believe that real love shows that God is accountable, and God has already paid in full the price of their sin, just has he has paid in full the price of yours and mine. O that they might hear the good news in that!
I think this is pretty self-explanatory, don't you?
gently feral