I just got back from my brother's wedding in Florida. In order to understand the wedding, you have to understand my family: we have long been deeply divided, in every generation. There is a lasting tradition of really blatant favoritism on the part of parents towards (and against) some of their children. This ends up creating an "in group" and an "out group." Once your role is cast in this system, it is almost impossible to change it. My brother is a white sheep, and I am black. And, so far as I can discern, nothing I do today would stand a chance of changing the label which I have inherited.

Anyway, I was somewhat discouraged by the evidence that this division has continued. My brother had my father and my sister in the wedding - and didn't even tell me it was happening. I heard about it third hand, then got an invitation. But it goes back a generation as well. Two married sets of aunt's and uncles -- the white sheep of the previous generation -- sat in the first two rows of the church, in the space reserved for immediate family. And, the remaining uncle and his wife sat in the back, safely anonymous. No doubt, if any of my family were to read this, they would offer many reasons why it was this way, and especially why these examples were the fault of the "black sheep."

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about the Church. I think that, just as my family is divided, the church is divided. And, I think, the division is perpetuated by the "white sheep" group. The black sheep are without voice, because they have already been marginalized, and the "white sheep" own the public face of the church. The white sheep are responsible, respectable, and wealthy. The white sheep listen to reason. The white sheep are practical. The white sheep are the part of the church that everyone wants to be. The white sheep believe in the just war theory, and the white sheep are politically engaged and "responsible."

And the black sheep are the lunatics who might just keep the church alive despite itself. Unfortunately, speaking as a black sheep in both the church and my family, I can tell you that the black sheep can rejoin the church only if the white sheep welcome us -- recognizing that we, the black sheep, have been pushed aside and that we, the black sheep, are needed, and that we, the black sheep, cannot become part of the flock unless the white sheep welcome us, seek us, and pull us back in. All without making us dye ourselves white. What this church needs is a few good radicals.