Christine:
Churches, like governments are made up of human beings, and as such are prone to all the foibles of human nature. Read the Constitution of the USSR, for example. It could have been written by Jefferson, guaranteeing freedom of the press, religion, etc. The government just chose to ignore it.
Churches, sadly, have done the same thing. None is without guilt.
This quote is from the preface to the first Book of Common Prayer (1549), after the break of the Church of England from Rome:
There was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, or sure established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted;
So true.
This does not mean the the principles the churches or the governments were built on or which they are supposed to stand for are invalid. Politicization of any organization tends to precede its loss of integrity -- our Congress, for example, but that's another story.
Jack |
