To be connected with the church
is to be associated with scoundrels,
warmongers, fakes, child-molesters,
murderers, adulterers
and hypocrites of every description.
It also, at the same time, identifies you
with saints and the finest persons of heroic soul
of every time, country, race and gender.
To be a member of the church
is to carry the mantle
of both the worst sin and the finest heroism of soul
because the church always looks exactly as it looked
at the original crucifixion:
God hung among thieves.
- Ron Rolheiser, OMI in The Holy Longing
