LETTERS PAGE

BETTER OF THE TWO EVILS?

Source : 02/10/1986 Northampton Post

Once again the Jesus Fellowship provides the 'respectable' churches with a scapegoat.

Personally, I find this sect's theology repugnant - but I find the self-righteousness of their detractors even more so.

The Fellowship offers drug-addicts an alternative dependency - on Jesus. It offers the socially inadequate an alternative to aimless loneliness and interpersonal conflict. It offers the criminally inclined constructive work instead of the street corner.

The majority of self-styled 'orthodox' churches are chronically unable or unwilling to provide the warm supportive friendship and discipline afforded by the Jesus cranks.

They (and Mr Morris's government) should direct their attention to their own failure to reach out, with comparable commitment, to 'the weaker brethren'.

But then, attacking the obvious target has always served to divert attention from ones own shortcomings.