The Inner Ring

Everyone has experienced the “inner ring” that Lewis describes in this oration. Many today call them “cliques” those social circles of people who are exclusive. We have all been a part of one or have been on the outside wanting in. Lewis tells us about the danger of these inner rings, and how “of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.” Who has not experienced this? The peer pressure, the desire to be on the inside, to be accepted, is almost overwhelming, making one act in ways that he/she would never have before. The disappointment is, however, once we do make it into the inside of the ring, the inner ring totally loses its appeal, and we spend our time trying instead to exclude others from making it in.
One thing that I thought was an important point made in class was the fact that not all Inner Rings are bad. What can be bad, however, is our motivation for wanting in and the reasons that we exclude others from it. Do we exclude others simply because we ourselves were excluded and now since we are on the inside we feel we have an entitlement to be exclusive?
I also wanted to consider the idea that the church should be an exclusive Inner Ring. I think that when it comes to welcoming people to church, we should not exclude or discriminate. However, the same is NOT true about allowing all to become members. The church has to guard against the “wolves in sheep’s clothing” and protect the members inside. So many people can seem genuine in their commitment, but will be tools of the devil to tear apart the church from the inside out. We need to be welcoming to those on the outside, but exclusive when it comes to who we allow as members.