The American Spectator

Church and Me : /p> p>Earlier this year, I agreed with Lawrence Henry’s column about repetitive and me-centered modern worship music, and I understand what he is saying in “Church and Me” (October 12, 2007). But Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” br> — K. Simonson /p>

Lawrence Henry seems to misunderstand the purpose of a church. Yes, we are the body of Christ. As a body, we want to help the members of that body that are hurting, sinning, or need encouragement. If Mr. Henry leaves a church every time a member disappoints him, he will not be a member at any church for long. Christians are not perfect. Christians make mistakes. Christians drink, mistreat others, gossip, eat too much, say hateful things, sin. We are all broken by sin, weighed down by it. We all spend our lives fighting our sinful nature in a never-ending effort to live by the Spirit. It is the responsibility of Christians to “speak the truth in love” to a sinning Christian, and to forgive that sin.

p>Perhaps the next time Mr. Henry sees a fellow Christian caught in a sin, he should approach him, using the guidelines Jesus gave us in Matthew 18. It would certainly be far more useful than retreating into isolation and judging from afar. Church used to be the place that people knew they could turn to when they had nowhere else to go. Unfortunately, we are now thought of as an elite club of hypocrites instead of the body of believers we are, just as crippled by sin as those around us. If Mr. Henry is as repulsed by hypocrisy as everyone else, he will solve nothing by doing nothing. Only when, as Christians, we can admit that we, too, are not perfect, will we be able to shed our hypocritical reputation, and reach out to those who feel that God can never forgive them with the wonderful message that he can and does. br> — Samantha Oconnell /p>

In his article entitled “Church and Me,” Mr. Henry asks: