[mnbryant]

I can understand exactly what you are saying. I am not a minister but have been in and out of churchs for years and left a few years back never to return. I still believe but very differently now. The hypocrisy is what got me and the lack of understanding the truth and how it worked. Which could not be explained by ministers I knew..For example the southern baptist mission to boycott the gay and lesbian comunity with there hatred of sin.......yet there behavoir toward them is biblicly defined as hatred..Which is also a sin..they have made up to many commands of men over the years as was posted earlier that it began to change with Constantinople. Learning to love by changing your thoughts and getting rid of selfishness is what the bible teaches and that is all I am interested in with it. Christ is perfect love. Which can be learned by us and which is what a mature christian should be. Paul said But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.......this is the result of weeding out our selfish thoughts and replacing them with right ways of thinking.....this man offends no one.....this man has friends in all circles and truly loves his neighber as himself......even if his neighbor is gay,ugly, drunkard or what have you.....this state of mind is heavan here on earth....you reap what you sow....you can't reap suffering for doing what is right.....you can't reap peace of mind for doing what is wrong.....Many things defined as love today is actually selfishness.........If Christ facinates you by his behavoir then I suggest you go to the James Allen free library and read his books......here you will find a man who is known to few but can teach you more about being Christlike than any seminary will ever do....