About half of them had been somehow wronged by some Christian church and had a real distaste for Christianity as a whole as a result.
Many people feel this way. And I can see why so many of em’ would feel this way. 'The church' seems to have an uneasy relationship with grace. 'The church' seems to do best when characterized by grace...it is certainly more appealing when the message of grace is most apparent...grace that was modeled and taught by Jesus. But grace seems to often be an early casualty in the world of organized religion. 'The church' seems to always gravitate toward graceless religion...it defines itself in terms of what it is against...instead of defining itself in terms of what it is 'for'. Jesus consistently criticized graceless religion and its practitioners...and He consistently criticized graceless religious leaders. The ones who had Him killed were those who claimed to know God the most...but they knew little of grace. And they confirmed everything He said about them by doing so. The church is most appealing when grace is most apparent.
