This Is Not The Church...Part One

There are certain things that the church is doing today that are not representative of what the church is all about. People in the church are furthering the poor reputation of the church through selfish and prideful actions. These actions and instances give the church such a bad name and put us in such a horrible light to the watching world that it makes dedicated Christians want to point at these things and scream "THIS IS NOT THE CHURCH!"

Well, I am going to try to do that now.

Granted, I am the chief of sinners. I understand my own faults, and I will not judge another person any more harshly than I would judge myself. I am not saying that nobody ever makes mistakes. But I am definitely saying this: there are highly visible representations of the church that are damaging to its reputation. These are usually solitary incidents or situations in relation to the thousands of good things that the Church attempts and accomplishes. But for some reason the only images of the church that are available are these damaging ones. So I write these posts to show that these things really are not the church.

I want to try to portray a true representation of the Church to the world. I want to show that these other things are NOT THE CHURCH, and the true church is built upon love, charity, freedom, and faith.

Our reputation has suffered enough from these damaging accounts, and it is time that we tried to show people who we really are.

I believe that one way to do this is to show how these damaging accounts are not the church.

THIS IS NOT THE CHURCH!