The Problem of Separatism by Stephen Legg

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about separatism.  I was first exposed to the idea four years ago while I was working on my undergraduate thesis.  At that time I was researching the theology and worldview of Puritan separatists who were willing to uproot their lives and families to move to the isolated wilderness of the New World in order to distance themselves from Christians who didn’t believe precisely as themselves.

I realize that the way I just described their intentions is not the way we usually tell the story.  We usually begin with the story of their persecution and delve into the heroism of an oppressed people who were brave enough to cross an ocean to practice their faith.  But there are other ways of looking at their separatism. 

For one thing, in their writings, the Puritans made clear their belief that they were being led to the New World as though it were an early-modern era Promised Land.  They compared themselves to the captive Hebrews of Egypt, being led to freedom in a land they had not previously known (a belief that was later adopted by many African-Americans Christians and lingers as theology in black churches today).  Today’s successors to Puritanism, conservative evangelicals, largely dismiss that theology.

Today, separatism doesn’t have the same meaning as it did for the Puritans, but it has similar results—a removal of Christian believers from one another and from unsaved and unchurched non-believers.

Now, there is a sense in which this is a good thing.  We are called to be different from the World, and commanded not to partake in its sins.  By maintaining a separation—by keeping our social and family lives within the safe confines of our churches—there is the hope that innocence will be preserved and the painful ugliness of sin might be staved off for another day.  It is good to desire these things, as it is good to “fellowship with the saints.”

But all too often we Christians tend to fellowship with the saints at the exclusion of loving our neighbors—our sinful, lustful, cursing, adulterous, homosexual neighbors.  We don’t want the careless sinfulness of these neighbors rubbing off onto us or our families.  We want to protect ourselves and our loved ones from sin.  We also don’t want to give the appearance of evil by associating with those who practice evil.  Again, these are good desires.

With the above in mind, I keep asking myself whether there are gray areas between separating from the world and socializing only with the church and engaging with the World so much that there is no apparent difference between a believer and a non-believer.  Those are the extremities that have been defined by many conservative evangelicals today.  I believe we have made this separation too extreme, too black and white.

Sin is a non-negotiable to a follower of Christ.  But so is separation from sinners.  One of the ways that Jesus came under severe scrutiny from religious leaders was his willingness to spend his time in the homes of sinners and outcasts from the religious community.  Yet, in all of the time he spent with sinners, he never sinned himself.  A separation remained, but it was not a physical or social separation.  The separation was the “bent” of his worldview and his intention.  Jesus truly loved the sinners but all the while kept himself from partaking in their sin.

I argue that we ought to follow the example Jesus set for us by befriending our non-believing neighbors, by truly loving them and sharing the joy that we have discovered for our own lives, by mourning with them and caring what is going on deep within their hearts. 

Certainly, there will be risks for us, temptation looms around every corner.  But as believers, we have the Holy Spirit to guard us against temptation.  We have a different outlook and a source beyond ourselves to draw upon.

In a world that is increasingly hostile to Christianity, we are fooling ourselves if we believe the lost are going to wander into our churches and small groups.  If we are going to bring the love of Christ to our neighbors, we are going to have to go to them—not handing out tracts and bearing condemnation, but by truly caring and expressing concern, by becoming involved in their lives.

- Stephen Legg