The importance of Safety

A grand flaw of many Christian institutions is the lack of genuine hospitality. For example, in many American mega-churches and Christian Universities such as APU there is a flawed idea of what community should be. Many people in Christian institutions think that community means a ‘safe place’ where a close-knit group of believers who ‘do life together’ can go. The problem is that community is not, as a rule, a ‘safe place’ for people to come when safe is equated to locked doors and a security team on patrol 24/7. I've been reading this book called Following Jesus In a Culture of Fear by Scott Bader-Saye, and in it he asks, “whether gated communities [think APU living areas] do not represent a kind of disordered love in which the desire to protect the lesser good of one’s property leads a person to reject the greater good of hospitality.” It has become evident to me that safety in community should be far less about physical security and far more about the emotional security of not being condemning and judging but rather accepting and loving of all people.
Much of the pressure to create a safe community is the pressure to have an appealing view of that community from the outside, and to put safety as a top priority is one of the easiest ways to do that. Safety is something that can be legislated and does not have to do with the hearts of the people within the community. Bader-Saye notes that, “communities often… provide a foundation for certain “church growth” programs that exhibit a faux hospitality that ultimately serves to reinforce homogeneity and resist true welcome of the other.” In our close Church or school communities the goal is to make those who are there feel comfortable, when this goal of comfort ends up excluding others, because including those who are different than us, who do not fit into our already decided community, makes us uncomfortable and is much harder work. Perhaps this is part of why we have so many specialized small groups- groups divided by age, gender, and even race. We hide behind our good intentions, and decide that people can 'connect' better with people like themselves, so it is better this way, but this theme only encourages homogeneity and excludes people who do not fit those standards. The only real way to be hospitable and to promote acceptance of those who are different than us is to unlock and open those doors and encourage inclusion of the other. It is never okay to sacrifice hospitality for safety.

"The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear." -Ralph Waldo Emerson