We are creatures of time and space. We must prioritize our time, energy, resources, attention. When we write things, people, institutions off we make an economic decision. “I will invest in this, but not that.” We have to do this, it’s a function of what we are. A practical “writing off” is a necessity that all of us embrace every day. There is a deeper “writing off” in the heart, however, that is a different matter.
The complaint here is that some are writing off others. One group says to another “We don’t need you. You’re defective (unlike us). You either are something or you’ve done something or you’ve embraced something that justifies our exclusion of our, our attempt to marginalize you, our desire that you no longer factor into the world we wish to create.”
By virtue of this marvelous agency humanity’s been given, no one holds a monopoly on the capacity of “writing off”. Writing off initially seems to ask very little of us. It is a small mental re-categorization. We have simply slid one or more persons or classes of people into a small mental category of those beyond any hope of redemption. At least they can’t be redeemed UNLESS they become like us, think like us, embrace what we embrace, etc.
The ease of this “writing off” is an illusion. What we don’t realize is that it starts out looking cheap and easy, but over time becomes weighty and costly. Every writing off is seen as “justified”, “caused by the other”. Unfortunate consequences are always excused by “We had no choice. They deserve it because of their evil ways or beliefs.”
That exclusion needs to be maintained and the cost of its maintenance is the loss of hope for community and the growth of bitterness of heart. We have to continue to rehearse the writing off, the reasons for it and why it must be maintained. We marshal others to embrace this writing off. We mobilize institutions to enforce it with money and power. We write it down in ink that we hope cannot be erased. We pray our children will embrace our “writing off” after we are gone. It consumes us. It begins to define us.
The opposite of writing off is love, but love is hard too. pvk
About PaulVK
Husband, Father of 5, Pastor
Leadingchurch.com 
On the Writing Off Of
We are creatures of time and space. We must prioritize our time, energy, resources, attention. When we write things, people, institutions off we make an economic decision. “I will invest in this, but not that.” We have to do this, it’s a function of what we are. A practical “writing off” is a necessity that all of us embrace every day. There is a deeper “writing off” in the heart, however, that is a different matter.
The complaint here is that some are writing off others. One group says to another “We don’t need you. You’re defective (unlike us). You either are something or you’ve done something or you’ve embraced something that justifies our exclusion of our, our attempt to marginalize you, our desire that you no longer factor into the world we wish to create.”
By virtue of this marvelous agency humanity’s been given, no one holds a monopoly on the capacity of “writing off”. Writing off initially seems to ask very little of us. It is a small mental re-categorization. We have simply slid one or more persons or classes of people into a small mental category of those beyond any hope of redemption. At least they can’t be redeemed UNLESS they become like us, think like us, embrace what we embrace, etc.
The ease of this “writing off” is an illusion. What we don’t realize is that it starts out looking cheap and easy, but over time becomes weighty and costly. Every writing off is seen as “justified”, “caused by the other”. Unfortunate consequences are always excused by “We had no choice. They deserve it because of their evil ways or beliefs.”
That exclusion needs to be maintained and the cost of its maintenance is the loss of hope for community and the growth of bitterness of heart. We have to continue to rehearse the writing off, the reasons for it and why it must be maintained. We marshal others to embrace this writing off. We mobilize institutions to enforce it with money and power. We write it down in ink that we hope cannot be erased. We pray our children will embrace our “writing off” after we are gone. It consumes us. It begins to define us.
The opposite of writing off is love, but love is hard too. pvk
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About PaulVK
Husband, Father of 5, Pastor