by Holli C. Buck

Created on: December 15, 2006   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

I have always had faith in God and even with all of the things that have gone on in my life; my faith has not been shaken. At least my faith in God hasn't been.

I have lost complete faith in the church and that is because some of the most Un-Christian behavior that I have seen has taken place inside of the Church.

Lying, adultery, child/spousal abuse, gossiping... It has always been rampant in my church and in my particular faith. But the interesting thing is that there are people in the church I attended that act as if by attending church on Sunday, they were justified in acting in whatever manner they chose the other six days of the week. (I refer to them as Part-Time Christians and others as Quarter-Time.)

All joking aside, what I find so sad is that there are a number of churches that broadcast on television (and are a part of my faith) and it seems that the pressing message is about getting rich and going out there and to claim the blessing that God has in store for you. The blessing, of course, has some sort of monetary value. What about loving thy neighbor? What about helping the poor and the sick? A lot of today's preachers/reverends/ministers seem to have lost their way when it comes to those basic tenets of Christianity and likewise, have not been teaching it to their parishioners. I find that to be the number one failing of the church that I used to attend and my particular faith in general.

Please note that I am not saying that all churches are like this nor are all the people in my ex-church guilty of the things that I have mentioned above. But the open hypocrisy is enough to make anyone run away from the Church, holding their head in their hands.

It can all be enough to drive people away from God just as easily as they are driven from the Church. But I had a very wonderful teacher in my godmother who taught me to pay attention to the message and not the messenger.

Never were wiser words spoken.

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