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                          %PREACHERS OF EXCLUSIVITY 770703

     People  who preach that their way is the only way  to
salvation should be studied to see if their gospel is self
serving.  What do they stand to gain by being preachers of
the only way to salvation?  Can they be free of bias while
being  the mediators of anything so ultimately  important?
Or are they likely to be corrupted by their presumed power
to  mediate the message of ultimate importance?   If their
way  to salvation is the only effective way,  they have an
ultimate  responsibility  to  share their  knowledge  with
those  who incorrectly think that a different way  is  the
way to salvation.

     With the  responsibility  to give  non-believers  the
knowledge   of  the  only  way  to  salvation  comes   the
inclination  to  make sure that the non-believers come  to
accept the validity of the only way to salvation.  How can
a  preacher of the only way to salvation know that  he  is
fulfilling  his  responsibility  to  preach  the   gospel?
Clearly  there  must  be some sign that his  preaching  is
producing  converts.   The preacher who does  not  produce
converts   can  not  feel  that  he  is   fulfilling   his
responsibility to get people to recognize the one and only
way to salvation.   Thus, if one way of preaching does not
work, there will a tendency to try other ways of preaching
which  will produce the expected quota of converts.   Only
as  the  expected quota of converts is  produced  can  the
exclusive  preacher  feel guilt-free.   In  this  way  the
exclusive  preacher is likely to tend towards manipulative
preaching.  The gospel is likely to be manipulated in such
a  way  as  to generate the number of converts  which  the
preacher  feels are enough to prove that he is  fulfilling
his responsibility to win converts.

     Preachers  of exclusivity need people to support them
in their exclusive venture.   They are trapped in a double
bind.   Since their way is the only way to salvation---not
all  people  can  be saved,  for many people believe  that
there  are other ways to salvations.   Thus such preachers
gather  around  themselves  small bands  of  converts  who
support  the preachers  in their conviction that their way
is the  only way.   They together play a collusive game of
mutual self-deception---that only  they  know the one true
way  to  salvation:   all  others  are  excommunicated  as
sinners.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
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