Chalke Talk 87: Is every exclusion a failure of love?

Following on from last week’s Chalke Talk, questioning why an often misinterpreted idea of the afterlife still makes its home in mainstream Christianity, Steve asks is every exclusion a failure of love?

“No amount of clever marketing, trendy website design, great coffee, trained welcomers, comfortable seating or sophisticated outreach programmes can cover things up when, at the heart of it all, a church worships a God who – though the hymns and sermons speak of love – has a much darker side" argues Steve. 

And to put in candidly, Steve believes every exclusion IS a failure of love. Why? He argues it has way more to do with our far-sightedness, our inability to understand the context behind scriptures than it does something inherently wrong about someone else. 

So the question is: do we believe that the God, who the Bible describes as love, understands that? Or, put differently, ‘Is God more insightful or less morally and emotionally aware than us?