Exclusivity Today

What is your experience with "exclusivity?" What connotation does the word have for you? For me, it evokes images of grand snobbery, country club canoodling; a "Keep Out" sign on an old oak door. But how do we encounter exclusivity in our daily lives?

Events can be exclusive. Weddings, birthday or holiday parties are often limited to only select, invited guests. Organizations can be exclusive. Colleges, businesses, sports teams all carefully select who will join their ranks. And Truth, by definition, is also exclusive. Some illustrations:

I remember disliking math class in elementary school. I think the reason was that the teacher was so exclusivistic. She had the nerve to tell me that out of the countless other numbers that I could select for my answer, there was only one correct answer to 2+2. I had to answer 4. So many possible answers are excluded.

My bank is exclusive. They claim there is only a very specific amount of money in my account, no matter how much I try to withdraw. If I say that I have $1,000 in my bank account and the bank says that I only have $1, we can't both be right. We'll know who is correct when my check bounces.

So in the midst of all this exclusivity, why is it that when religion is the subject, exclusivity becomes public enemy #1? I hear people charge that Christianity is exclusive. Agreed. But so is Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc....and TRUTH.

Religion gets a bad rep when your banker does not because exclusivity demands an object; something is being excluded or kept out. When we're talking abstract numbers no feelings are hurt. But we hate to think that we're being excluded. And could that exclusion be based on the fact that we're somehow (gasp) judged? And who, after all, has the right to judge me?!

But what if it's not judgment? What if you're not attending a particular college, because you didn't apply? What if you haven't been invited to the party because you don't know the host?

At the end of the day, if we are intellectually honest, exclusivity is a most reasonable proposition for any truth claim... be it mathematical, scientific, or religious.