On my way home from Harry Potter at 3am, I drove past this Bible church that always has annoying signs out. They write things that are apparently supposed to make you want to come into their church. I can’t remember specific past examples, but they did spell Matthew with one T recently. The one this morning just got to me though. “The wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23” Um, sure. Yes, that’s partly correct. One word (“for”) missing at the beginning, but the next six words are right. However, the majority of the verse is missing: “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Perhaps I focus on grace too much (isn’t too little law, too much Gospel a criticism of the ELCA?), but that part of the verse seems exceedingly important.
You can’t scare people into believing something. That isn’t faith. And selective reading bugs me.