Church discipline

In regard to the editorial “SBC Resolution Takes the Wrong Approach” in the June 26 issue, I agree wholeheartedly that the church, both universally and locally, is not all that it should be. Churches could certainly do a better job at incorporating new members into the fellowship of the local body, discipling new believers in the faith, encouraging those who are weak or immature in the faith and instructing and informing its members on what it means to be a Christian and a church member.

But the church is not to blame for all of the failures of its individual members. Something that has been lost in our world, our country and unfortunately even in our churches is the idea of personal responsibility. Because of this, someone or something else is always to blame for a person’s failures, whether it is parents, government, schools or the church. Such is the tenor of the editorial; that the unfaithfulness of two-thirds of our churches’ members is the fault of the faithful.

Love isn’t telling those who are unfaithful that it is our fault; it’s telling them that they need to repent and that if they don’t, the whole body shares a responsibility for their sin that can only be alleviated by dealing with it in God’s way, which is church discipline. We have not done this, and for this reason, we do need to repent and resolve to do better.

Micah Gandy
Selma, Ala.