Rev. Cindy Maddox

The gospel is never [just] a commentary on ideas or culture or conditions; it’s always about actual persons, actual pain, actual trouble, actual sin: you, me; who you are and what you’ve done; who I am and what I’ve done. It’s both easy and common to lose this focus, to let the gospel blur into generalized pronouncements, … religious indignation. That’s what David is doing in this story, listening to his pastor preach a sermon about somebody else and getting all worked up about this someone else’s sin…. That kind of religious response is worthless…. It’s the religion of moral judgmentalism, self-righteous finger-pointing, the religion of accusation and blame.