Sorry, but I have to disagree with you this time.  I think your heart is in the right place but you have gotten just a tad bit confused along the way.  It is not the man-made institutions known as churches that we should honor.  "The Church" that is Christ's bride, is the body of believers - not an organized group in a fancy building that can barely be distinguished from the world around it for all of the lies, hypocrisy, and strange doctrines.  I wonder what really grieves the Holy Spirit the most - calling out the fake-ness of churches (not The Church), or ignoring it in the name of elevating a man-made institution to the level of God's creation?

@radicalramblings - But this is the deceit. We have idealized the idea of Church v. church to the point where we seem to believe the Church is dead, even while she lives in churches around the country. We somehow believe we can blame Christians for every fault in the world, from racism to slavery to genocide to greed, without blaming God's Children. I have not failed to distinguish between the two; I am saying that we need to be very careful to not wrongly dismiss the Church -- " the Church as we see her spread but through all time and
space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners" -- when we point out those sins embodied in Her members. We talk about how "no one's perfect," yet we seem to think that only those who at least come close are those who will be included in God's Kingdom, and the rest, well... it's only too bad we can't judge them for sins not committed.

I have not failed to see the flaws in the church, and I'm not blind to the mistakes of our past, and I know those mistakes will continue into the future. But to pretend that somehow our individual local church is somehow not part of the bigger picture and that we therefore have every right to judge her people (who cares whether we have been given charge over them?) and to insult her fellowship is to ignore every Biblical teaching on the subject of fellowship, church and God's Army, the Bride, the Temple -- the Church. Isn't it very possible that, as Screwtape's uncle tells us, God puts imperfect people in His body so that we may learn to love them as He does -- so that we may learn how NOT to judge? We do that so easily on our own -- no one needs to teach children how to insult, to mock, to make little of. Only God can soften the heart to love the imperfect, the flawed, the weak. The Kingdom of God does not live as some abstract idea that is active Somewhere Else; it is the existence of each of us as individuals and each of us as a body who voluntarily come together in love.

It is not an act of judgement, or deceit, or hypocrisy.

@radicalramblings - Not one in particular -- just the general attitude Christians take against other Christians, seeming to think they have the right to judge the hearts and salvation of entire Parts of the Body with impunity and still remain within God's graces. The overwhelming mentality that says that church is dead, fellowship is passe, "coming together" is accomplished by sharing a cup of coffee with friends -- ignoring entirely that Paul was brought into a church where he was HATED by everyone, in order for God to work miracles through Him. We seem to think that we can hold past sins against our own family and still please God's heart, but He has never told us to do so. It's sick and it's wrong. We were meant to come together with those who love God -- no matter their imperfections, no matter our previous perceptions, no matter their personal issues or problems.

So the pastor's wife judges your shirt -- so WHAT? So the child of the teenage mother is kicking your seat during worship -- so what? So the old biddies think you're disobeying God by dating a black man, so the man sitting in the pew by himself is a registered sex offender, so the woman to your left is on her fifth marriage and the pastor was a teenage alcoholic -- SO WHAT? Does this negate our command to love them, to come together in fellowship with them, to worship with them and share their burdens as our own, to pray for them and to desire nothing but good for them? God works a marvelous thing when we pray for others, when we choose to love them and serve them and share with them -- He makes it easy for us. God can do nothing for a heart that's already made up its mind to disobey Him.

@radicalramblings - That's not what I'm talking about -- when the leadership uses its power to abuse, this is wrong, REGARDLESS of the institution. But read the blogs attacking churches -- they are aimed, by and large, at "Christians;" not leadership, but peers -- people God has given them no charge over and whose hearts they do not know. There are probably half a dozen such posts either added or rec'ed just on my welcome page right now. And most of their authors simply explain their judgements by arguing that, since the Church has made mistakes in the past -- the Catholic policy of noninvolvement during the Holocaust, the lynchings of the Deep South, the misuse of power by Christian American leaders -- we are justified in judging others with no relation to those acts, based on their relation to similar institutions. It's pious religiosity masquerading as righteousness.

The Bible is clear, the Church is God's idea, and those who call themselves Christians have no right or business abandoning what God has created.   That is not to say that the Church doesn't need reformation.   I can prove this point, beyond any shadow of any doubt. 

I used to identify myself as gay, and I lived it.   For the past 19 years I've walked with Christ.  I've never returned to homosexuality, since renouncing it to follow Jesus Christ.   That is absolutely Christ's work in my life, despite me.   To this day there are churches, leadership and laity alike who will not accept me, because of my past.   There are other churches who would tell me I never needed to leave gay, to pursue relationship with Christ.   I could take you to churches in your own community of both stripes.  

There are many of us who live between those who are hateful, and those who accepting of gross sin.   Now, my little past sins aren't really the issue, I'm free, God did it, and I'm cool with that.   But my past sin and how the Church deals with it is the real issue.   The Church needs reformation, I'm not leaving the Church, but please don't expect me to sit still while I see the body of Christ so grossly disobey God.   God sets the standards, for all of us, and it is to that standard I appeal when I address the Church.   Not my standard...we know what that is;sin.  We are to be held to God's standard.   

AND by the way, there is a long history of voices from within the Church pointing out the hypocrisy of Christians...ahem...Paul called out Peter, Luther called out the entire Catholic Church...Hypocrisy is something we can't continue living with.   Either God can and does overcome sin, or He doesn't.   If God does overcome sin, WE, Christians have absolutely no excuse...ours is to repent, and that's all there is to that.  

That's my 2 cents..

Lonnie