We can make score cards available for those who wish to list names of all hypocrites present. We could provide TV dinners for those who cannot get to church and cook at the same time. We will set aside one section with trees and grass for those who like to find God in nature, and have a putting green in the Narthex for those who cannot imagine Sunday without golf. We will let folks know that some relatives will be in attendance for those who like to go visiting on Sunday. Finally, we can decorate the sanctuary with both poinsettias and Easter lilies for those who have never seen the church without them.
History offers no parallel to the church.
There is no question that what goes on in parliaments and legislatures, in Congress halls and Senate chambers, is always of importance to humanity. But when the world is out of joint, when people's minds are disordered and their hearts are failing them for fear, then the thing of supreme importance is the living church, with all of her sanctuaries of worship and her avenues of service, where men and women come to have their faith strengthened, their thoughts clarified, their ideas uplifted, their convictions born, and their characters created. You see the church has introduced the world to a vision of perfection. The church has introduced the world to Jesus Christ. Over 170 years ago, the French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville came to these shores to study this fledgling democracy.