The philosophy of religious inclusion flows in a circle. It was crafted at a point in time by an extremely intelligent being, and it always circles back around to its founder. The logical progression of this worldview must ultimately flow back around to the one who dreamt it up.
When the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church recently criticized the apostle Paul for casting the demon out of the girl in Acts 16, the bishop was completing the circle of religious inclusion. After all, if every religious view is equal to another, then Satanism and demon possession are probably just misunderstood. If we were more tolerant of other views, perhaps we wouldn't be so quick to judge those demons and the work they do.
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori claimed that Paul deprived the possessed girl of her "gift of spiritual awareness." That fits with the logic of religious inclusivity. In that worldview, no one is ever wrong and everyone has something helpful to contribute to the awareness of spiritual truth. It is the same logic which has now led the largest Lutheran denomination in America to elect its first openly gay bishop. Same sort of thing. Same circle of spiritual life, or death, depending I suppose on your perspective. Everyone is entitled to his or her lifestyle and his or her religious truth. The only "sin" is to claim that someone is living a wrong way, or believing a wrong thing. That is the unforgivable sin in the logic of religious inclusion.
What begins with an acceptance of beliefs and sexual practices which were formally understood to be sinful, gradually advances toward promoting those ideas and practices to the top of the class. (or the highest positions in the organization)
The episcopal bishop has actually done a service of sorts for this ecumenical religion which embraces everyone. She has "gone for the jugular" so to speak by taking this premise to its logical conclusion. By including demons on her approved list of spiritual advisors, she has shown that the religion of inclusion must indeed have been instigated by the prince of darkness himself. Who else would be able to pull off such a feat, even involving religious leaders from "Christian" denominations in the process? Read more
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