Yeah, I said it.  The Church has done some things, things that she was never called to do.  The Crusades.  Witch hunts.  Selling (yeah, literally, selling) tickets to Heaven.

So yeah.  The Church is a screw-up … on a cosmic level.  Capable of incredible beauty in one minute and devastating atrocity in the next.

But what if she apologized?  (By the way, I draw a line of distinction between apology and repentance because I think that the church has repented to God of a LOT.  It’s just that she’s apologized to people very LITTLE.)  So what if she got down on her hands and knees and begged PEOPLE for forgiveness?

“Forgive us for turning religious sacredness into a political spectacle where preachers quote from Fox News more than they do the Bible.

Forgive us for making you feel, at your lowest, weakest moment, like a criminal, tried and sentenced to die before you ever sit in a pew.

Forgive us for preaching a power that we do not REALLY believe can heal you, change you, and transform you.

Forgive us for ignoring a power that can heal you, change you, and transform you.

Forgive us for using methods that MAY have worked in the 1980’s but DEFINITELY make you too embarrassed to mention the word “church” in front of your friends today.

Forgive us for using long words and pompous ritual as a way to mask shallow faith.

Forgive us for using flashy lights and loud music, effectively taking you to a spiritual strip bar of cheap thrills when you’re dying for a night of REAL intimacy.

Forgive us for endorsing sin openly and boldly.  You deserve a Church with more backbone than that.

Forgive us for not coming to you like this before now.”

What if the Church apologized?