Orthodoxy is not an ugly, oppressive word. It is a beautiful one. At its heart, it simply means right worship, right confession, faithfulness to the truth God has revealed. It assumes that truth is real, that Christ really is who he says He is, and that the Spirit really does lead the church into truth across time.
Of course, that does not justify cruelty, coercion, or the shameful weaponising of doctrine. Christians should be the first to repent every time truth has been used as a club rather than received as a gift. But the abuse of truth does not make truth itself abusive. So while the church must never bully people with truth, neither should she find herself bullied away from the truth.
And that matters in our cultural moment, where marginalisation is so often made to function like a truth claim, tempting the church to mistake emotional theatre about exclusion, victimhood, or historical grievance for actual moral or theological weight. Heterodoxy is not virtuous simply because it is heterodox. Nor is every challenge to orthodoxy brave. Often it is simply wrong and needs to be condemned as such.
So I think Christians must strive to refuse two errors at once right now: the weaponisation of orthodoxy on the one hand, and the sentimentalising of heterodoxy on the other. Truth is beautiful, and faithfulness to it is a good thing.
