Alicia,

I appreciate your refreshing and challenging insights into complex topics.  

I think the real heart of your discussion was your statement "What an oasis church would be if it were a place where we could stop worrying about whether we agree with everything and whether we approve of everyone’s behavior... and stop policing each other. " Our focus on evaluating others grows in direct measure of our distance from Christ because, the closer we draw to Him, the more we want to life each other up so they also can be transformed by His love and power. I have tasted of both that oasis and the desert of judgement and hope to never again return to the latter. Even so, as many of the judgemental comments posted in this form illustrate, a lot of people are viewing the oasis from a very dry distance.