religious condemnation

Read today: No matter what someone has done, their church should be there for them. Fundamentalist churches especially seem to be overfond of preaching Jesus Christ, and then conveniently forgetting Christ's admonition to love one another, and instead, use the Apostle Paul to punish someone who has sinned.

They'd stone people if the law in America let them get away with it. Abuse is love, they say. Separation is love, they say. God is not a God of separation; he is a God of union. What Ted Haggard did wasn't right, according to ethics or secular law, but he deserves to be forgiven. He should have been allowed to stay in church, where he could have gotten real spiritual help, instead of being tossed out to deal with things on his own.

Christ said he came to the sick, not the well, yet the church seems obsessed with keeping the sick out of the congregation in order not to spread "spiritual infection." This only forces the congregation to drive real problems underground, so they don't get thrown out too.

Churches need to stop being afraid of humanity's weaknesses, and HELP people instead of judging them. When Katrina and AIDS happened, the churches were the first ones to judge and condemn. It makes me angry to no end to see "Christians" use their religion to separate people, rather than being willing to dig in and get their hands dirty and I don't know, actually acknowledging sin as a weakness in man and HELPING people become better.

Most fundamentalist Christians are arrogant, self centered, judgmental, hard, unloving and unkind. this is the antithesis of the fruits of the spirit that Christians should be showing (not broadcasting) to the world.

Repent, Christians, and maybe more people will be moved by your example to Christ. Christ judges those Christians who discourage others away from Him by their words and actions. What does judge not, lest ye be judged mean anyway? You don't have to be part of the person's sins, but that doesn't mean you don't help them.

Helping people by booting them out of church as they did with Haggard is not help. It's condemnation, and doesn't make those who sin repent. Christ didn't boot people out--he got down and dirty and helped them on their level.