We Presbyterians -- the Frozen Chosen -- don't do "amens" except at the end of hymns. The Wide, Wide Circle is eminently "amenible."

The Lay Committee is an exclusivist minority, though a noisy one, in the Presbyterian flock. March's book expresses the inclusive majority view.

"Persons with an inclusive perspective consider their own religion to offer the best but not the only possible understanding of the Divine," wrote March, a professor emeritus at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. "For Christians this means that God is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ. God's work is brought to its completion in Jesus Christ. The best, the most satisfying, the most secure, the most fulfilling relationship with God is to be found in faithfully following Jesus Christ. But such a commitment to Jesus does not require a denunciation of all other religious views."

Amen.

March warned against "militant religious extremism." He added that, "Those who teach or practice their religious devotion in ways that encourage disdain for others by distorting and misrepresenting their own traditions and those of others need to be challenged. Hate no longer can have a legitimate place at the table of any of our religious gatherings."

Amen.

It is easy to see how March's book riled the Laymen and others of the exclusivist persuasion. Indeed, I suspect that what makes the Laymen maddest at March is knowing -- but never admitting, of course --that a lot more Presbyterians agree with him than with them.

March suggested that among exclusivists "somewhere along the way the song 'Jesus loves me' became 'Jesus loves me.'" (Similarly, though less reverently, a folk rock group called the Chicken Chokers croons a tune titled, "Jesus Loves Me But He Can't Stand You.")

Early in his book, March pops the big question. "Do you have to be a Christian to get to heaven?...Or to put it more simply, must only one religion be true?"

March explained that "this side of heaven, there is no way to answer the last question conclusively, one way or the other." Probably nothing in March's book raised Laymen hackles higher than the author's next sentence: "People may believe what they want, but there is simply no way to prove their beliefs to be correct." (Italics mine.)

Amen.

Religion isn't based on empirical science or history. Religion is rooted in faith. Hence, most Presbyterians heed the Biblical admonition to "Judge not lest ye be judged." Like March, most Presbyterians are proud of their faith but freely admit there is truth and validity in other religions.

March also urged that "the resources of the major religious traditions of the world...be marshaled to develop a basis for mutual respect and just cooperation among believers and nonbelievers alike." He concluded, "This book is a small contribution toward this goal."

I prayerfully disagree. It is a large contribution. Otherwise, the Laymen and their "Jesus loves me" soul mates wouldn't take so much umbrage at The Wide, Wide Circle of Divine Love and the "Jesus loves me" theology of its author.