However, the objection that all truth is a power play falls prey to the same problem as the objection that all truth is culturally conditioned. If you try to explain away all assertions of truth as one or the other or something else you find yourself in an untenable position. If you say all truth-claims are power plays, then so is your statement. If you say (like Freud) that all truth claims about religion and God are just psychological projections to deal with your guilt and insecurity, then so is your statement. To see through everything is not to see.
Moreover, some people criticise Christianity as it requires particular beliefs in order to be a member of its community. In the new "liberal democracy" common moral beliefs are seemingly not necessary - if everybody respects the privacy and rights of others and works for equal access to education, jobs and political decision-making for all.
However, this is a vast oversimplification as does not pass the test of further scrutiny. This "liberal democracy" is based on an extensive list of assumptions - a preference of individual to community rights, a division between private and public morality, and the sanctity of personal choice. All of these beliefs are foreign to many other cultures. "Liberal democracy" (as is every community) is based on a shared set of very particular beliefs. Western society is based on shared commitments to reason, rights and justice, even though there is no universally recognised definition of any of these. The idea of a totally inclusive community is therefore an illusion. Every human community holds in common some beliefs that necessarily create boundaries, including some people and excluding others from its circle.
Furthermore, any community that did not hold its members accountable for specific beliefs and practices would have no corporate identity and would not really be a community at all. We cannot consider a group exclusive simply because it has standards for its members. Here is a far better set of tests: which community has beliefs that lead its members to treat people in other communities with love and respect - to serve them and meet their needs? Which community's beliefs lead it to demonise and attack those who violate their boundaries rather than treating them with kindness, humility and winsomeness?
We should criticise Christians when they are condemning and ungracious to unbelievers. But we should not criticise churches when they maintain standards for membership in accord with their beliefs. Every community must to the same.
Based on: Keller, T. (2008). The Reason For God. p.35-50
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