The Hospitality of God

In 1982 a Methodist congregation in Detroit made public declaration that its sanctuary would serve as a refuge for resisters of draft registration. It set out the spiritual welcome mat and later commended the practice to sister and brother congregations. In the debate that ensued there was animated discussion about war, civil disobedience, and the portent of a draft. Lacking in the debate was the most forthright suggestion that the whole proposal simply acknowledged the proper theological and historical implication of a Christian sanctuary. The church had merely recommended that sanctuaries be sanctuaries.