The Church.

How can the Church preach mercy and forgiveness and practise condemnation and punishment?

How can they preach love for all humanity and damn gay and lesbian people?

How can they preach humility and poverty and court power, authority, and riches?

The answer is that they are hypocrites - they say one thing and practise another.

"Then Jesus said to the crowds and to the disciples, 'The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; therefore do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practise what they teach.  They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.  They do all their deeds to be seen by others.....They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the market place, and to have people call them rabbi.'"  Matthew 23:1-7 (NRSV)

"The shepherds also have no understanding, they have all turned to their own way, to their own gain, one and all."  Isaiah 56:11 (NRSV)

"Ah you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves!  Should not the shepherds feed the sheep?  You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep.  You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the stayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them."  Ezekiel 24:2-4 (NRSV)

And so it is in the Church of Jesus Christ today!

[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are  used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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