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We all "live lives of shallowness and selfishness, of petty emotions and jealousies, of distraction and escape, of ego and pride, and sometimes of gross corruption and treachery". In your comparison between the two you act as if one group is better when in truth the only difference is the percievable degree of repentance. Yet we are all equally flawed and we're all equal contributors to the state of the world today, if not in our deeds than in our ommissions.

IF NOT IN OUR DEEDS THAN IN OUR OMMISSIONS. Think about it, friend. Do not misguide yourself. It is fundimentally part of the gospel that humanity has no hope in themselves but only in God. No redeeming aspect except that which is beyond them. Blame has no place in your evaluation nor in your religion.

It is not for you to condemn. Instead, look toward these problems as they occur in your personal life and seek to improve them. No man's life is removed from the mark of human failure and this failure can only be improved by giving of yourself.

The problem occurs when good people are afraid to do what their hearts tell them they should and that is where the misery is compounded. He who has not sinned may cast the first stone, it is said. Yet Jesus never cast that stoned and the equation falls in on itself in that the act of throwing the stone is itself a sin.

Christians are afraid to invest themselves personally in a world so clearly marred with impurity, and yet this is the SAME world as Jesus inhabited and in which his deciples also learned to act as he acted. These are the same sins, the same problems and for the same stakes. We all yearn for those days but they are CLOSE at hand.

It is we who are far removed from them. We ARE society. There's nobody here but us. There's nobody else to blame and politics aren't going to solve our problem and they're not going to fill up the hole left by the tide of our ebbing faith. You can read all the books you want but in the end these failures are no one's but our own.

Our own damned fault. I listen to at least as much political talk and news broadcast as most of you and I'll say that this only strengthens my resolve. Makes me more determined. I am not perfect. I will fail in my efforts more often than I succeed, but when I do well it's worth a thousand disappointments.

I see that the greatest evil is that which comes from within. I'm not going to quote any recent publications and I won't need to to tell you that the worst sins are not always those which we enact but the ones which we allow to be imposed upon us and our loved ones.

Cease to contribute to this. Be real, be brave, be true, be honest. Honest with your loved ones, your creator and yourself. How else can one see clearly?

In my opinion honesty is one of the easiest things for a Christian to lose grasp of. Much is left unaddressed in the name of brotherhood. Much is left unsaid for the sake of our own uncertainty in this world where we encourage eachother into weakness far more often than into strength. How much harder is it then to be strong? For this reason I see the biggest problem in modern Christianity to be the propensity to place blame rather than to take responsibility. The Amish are a good example of a people who long ago resolved to cherish integrity rather than approval. When you look at their sacrifices it becomes much easier to understand the scope of resolve required to do the right thing.

In this world of technology and leisure we are all rich in our own way. The adage goes that "it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter heaven." Today, I think there are few of us who are left out of that equation.

Sincerely,

TFC.