Thank you, Tim Piepho, for not dating your reference to the Spiritual Reflections column in your letter to the editor of June 29. This absence caused me to search past issues of the News-Herald. In its June 15 issue I found Mary Ellen Ashcroft’s column sub-headed “Why do fewer and fewer people go to church?” in which she refers to Ray Suarez’s citation of a study about those who state “none” in answer to religious affiliation. The three most common words “Nones” associated with “Christian” were “anti-gay” (91 percent), “judgmental” (87 percent), and “hypocritical” (85 percent).
Thank you, too, for motivating me to carefully read her other recent columns, especially the one of June 29 headed “How to get a reputation”. In it she concluded:
The message of those early Christians was radical and disruptive, and they got a reputation for it. They didn’t sit within walls, making up rules to keep others out. They were out in the world, following Christ’s way as they cared for the most vulnerable, shattered societal norms of who’s in and who’s out, and loved each other.
I’ve lived long enough and had enough church experience to know that no human being (or church body) is perfect. But comparing the words of your letter and those of Ashcroft’s column of June 29, I have NO doubt about what kind of church I would want to join.
Mary Sanders
Grand Marais
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