BMN – thanks for your comments. I am not sure if I totally understand the point you are making. I compare telling lies with hypocrisy because it is generally accepted that hypocrisy is lying. If you look up hypocrisy in a Thesaurus, you will find that a synonym of hypocrisy is “lie”.

I have to disagree with Church being necessary only if it makes us or others happy. Life is tough sometimes, and you have to do what you know is right even if doesn’t make you happy. I remember once when I found $20 at school in the hall when no one was around. I could have kept it, but I decided to turn it in to the principal. That didn’t make me happy at all – but it was the right thing to do.

We need Church because we receive encouragement, enlightenment, rebuke, and correction. We also learn how to deal with difficult people. And a whole host of reasons that are even more important than these (I am only speaking to issues at hand and not espousing my entire theology on why we should go to church). It’s not always easy – but it’s what we need in life to grow. We can seek to be happy – that is fine, but to avoid things that don’t make us happy would make us socially and emotionally stunted because we would have to avoid huge parts of life.

My problem is with people that don’t go to church because they think the churches are filled with hypocrites. If you don’t want to go to church because you don’t believe in the Bible or whatever – you are free to choose that. But to make hypocrisy your reason is pretty weak. It’s like saying you don’t want to go eat at a restaurant because the waiter will only be nice to you because he wants a tip from you. It’s where he works, so earning money is what he does. It should have no bearing on whether we go there or not. Same thing with church. People are all hypocritical in some way – that’s no reason to avoid church, just like it is no reason to avoid going to the bank.