You should always honor it by letting it put its best foot forward.

When you hold forth the abuses of something, it is not compelling.

It's terrible. It feels like it's- it is very narrow-minded and restrictive,

but on the other side, if you would look at the places where

the Christian faith has been lived out, taken to its logical conclusion

or embodied with a true discipleship and practice, you will find some of the

most beautiful, compelling

generative, life-giving people, practices,

and cultural goods that have existed - period.

A lot of people are unaware of the fact that

in the - in just after the time of Jesus, it was Christians who came up with the

really value of human life. They believe that because people are made in the image of

God,

that humans were intrinsically worth something. So there were some of the

first to set up hospitals so that the sick could be healed.

They opened orphanage to care - orphanages to care for the unwanted

children in the Roman Empire who abandoned to the practice of

infanticide. They've had a story that's impacted

the arts. Many of the great painters and music composers from human history

produce some of the most

compelling, rich works of art that have existed.

Many of the justice issues that have been led - the greatest abolitionist that's

ever lived

not pushed to end slavery not in spite of his Christian faith but because of

his Christian faith.

And so we need to look at a philosophy or religion based on the people who

practice it truly rather than people who are abusing its teachings, and

because there's been some quite strong and horrific

accidents in church history and incidents, people have chosen to focus on those

rather than some of the other compelling ways that people have practiced their faith.