Comments on: Giving Up the Religion Beat

By: Keith Brenton

Keith Brenton — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:47:21 +0000

God bless Packy the Eskimo.

He is one of the deepest theologians I have ever heard of.

May he find peace in his faith.

By: Joel Maners

Joel Maners — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:00:22 +0000

A friend o mine once worked at a convenience store one summer while he was in college. The store was in a poorer area of town and he regularly saw drunks and prostitutes come into the store. When I asked him what it was like he said, “That job would make anyone a Conservatve.” I guess when you continually see the worst side of humanity, it has an effect on your spirit.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:35:59 +0000

Laura,

I certainly wasn’t implying that churches of Christ aren’t sinful in many respects. But I can’t isolate any one sin that I could call institutional. The sins that you mention no doubt exist in our past and probably in the present. But (at least I’m hoping) they’re not a fact of life in a large number of churches. Like I said, I don’t know if it matters, but the institutional problem in the Catholic church sure has impacted public perception (especially of the priesthood and maybe even preachers of other faiths).

By: laura oldenburg

laura oldenburg — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 07:08:46 +0000

So what you are saying Kyle is if there is no formal church institute then this problem, at least in the magnitude that it does exist, wont exist? In the Churches of Christ we might not have the molestation problem, I don’t know if we do or not. But I know of other problems that I have known about, leaders in the Church who have seduced young girls who looked up to them. This is bad enough and I know it devastates the family as well as the congregation. But what about the way we turn our backs on those who are the victims of abuse, emabarrassed about their sin, as if they are at fault. Do we remove ourselves from the stories because we are “different” and this isn’t our story, Somehow we are better and didn’t these people do something that triggered the event. Even when confronted with sin Jesus looked at their hearts of the women and forgave them and told them to sin no more. Loving and forgiving is hard to do, it leaves us open to be hurt but it also leaves us open for the Spirit to do His thing in us.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 05:26:32 +0000

I like many I’m sure, read this with regret that Satan likely has tempted a few into physically violating a few more but spiritually violating a multitude. But as I was reading this, I wonder, do the churches of Christ have anything like this. My assumption is that these kinds of things may have happened in our history but only in the isolated cases that the writer assumes.

I’m not sure if it matters or not, but if these aren’t isolated cases, do we call them institutional problems? And if there is no institute can the same problem exist?

By: Canada Jim

Canada Jim — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 05:23:15 +0000

Wow… that article just speaks to the incredible journey we’re all on when we call Jesus Lord. Ups, downs, highs, lows, mountains, valleys, good, evil… faith, trust, doubt, crisis,

“I do believe… help my unbelief!” That’s the cry that Jesus never condemned… he listened… he knew…

By: CK

CK — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:32:11 +0000

I agree with Vanauken - the best and most beautiful things in life are Christian. But so are the most hideous.