DARRELL HUCKABY: Public education has lost its way

Everybody talks about schools, but nobody does anything about them. It’s kind of like the Methodist Church. Deep down in their heart of hearts, people know what a church is supposed to be, what a church is supposed to preach, what a church is supposed to stand for. Deep down we know the message that we’ve been commissioned to take to the nations. It is a message of love and inclusion — absolutely — and we mostly get that right.

It is a message of grace. We are big on that — so big that we identify three kinds — prevenient, justifying and sanctifying. We are also called to teach repentance, but when you start talking about actual repentance, lots of folks think you’ve quit preaching and gone to meddling, so they just let that part slide in many churches because, after all, we just can’t afford to dissuade anybody from coming to church — particularly anybody or bodies that might comprise a giving unit.