In 1989, Rev. Dr. Greg Boyd began a letter writing conversation with his atheist father about questions of faith. Their letters became the resource for the book, “Letters from a Skeptic.” Greg’s dad’s first letter is a profound one and contains two important questions:

1. How could an all-powerful and all-loving God allow his church to do so much harm to humanity for so long?

2. Isn’t this supposed to be His true church, his representation on earth?”

There are more good things that have come out of the Church’s history, but we must acknowledge that the Church at times has gotten involved in demonic stuff – the Inquisition, the Crusades, the persecution of indigenous people. The Church that was called to be people who turned the other cheek has been willing to cut off people’s heads and firebomb homes, if they didn’t believe the right thing or say it the right way.

The church scandal is not just the catastrophes and the attacks on people who look, act, or speak differently that the Church at times has condoned and at other times directly perpetrated. The real church scandal. The scandal the church doesn’t like to talk about is how the church has fallen short of reflecting the character of Christ whose ministry and teachings were all summed up on the cross.

The Church is supposed to be God’s representation on earth. It’s supposed to be God’s body, God’s hands, and God’s feet. Paul writes that the Church is to be a living letter. The church is supposed to be the primary means that people come to believe that Jesus Christ is for real.