Those with even a surface knowledge of the New Testament might have been confused by Vance’s theological musings about a hierarchy of loves. Didn’t Jesus tell the story of the Good Samaritan in order to demonstrate that the “neighbor” we’re asked to love isn’t necessarily someone you know or even share an ethnicity with, but that God calls us to do good to anyone we can? Wasn’t the Christian church supposed to be a new family of differing economic statuses and ethnicities? Didn’t Paul pressure gentile Christians in Corinth to give beyond their means to help Jewish Christians in Jerusalem? There’s considerable evidence that the early church was interested in expanding the boundaries of love, not building walls around it.