Sarah, thanks for sharing more of your thoughts.

I think where we depart is at the idea of Jesus as "but one descriptor" of Love or the Path or the Way; or Jesus as one among many "radicals."

What Christ claimed, what the Scriptures claim about Christ, and what God claims on behalf of His Son is not that he is *one of many,* but *one and only.*

Jesus is not just a promoter of love and loving-kindness. He is the source of true, sacrificial, agape love -- love that causes one to lay down their life for others as Jesus did for us. That's why we say "God is love," and not "Love is god."

Now, about Jesus being a radical: He is/was a radical, indeed. But there have been a good number of radicals in history. What sets Jesus apart from other radicals, from other prophets, from other teachers is that he died. Was buried. And rose from the dead.

Buddha was cremated, and his ashes distrubuted in monuments in India. King's body is buried in Atlanta. Jesus' tomb is empty. No other individual in history has made a credible claim to return from the dead.

Which leads to the final thing I want to say about the Church. The existence of the true, capital-C Church (the body of Christ) is quite radical actually. At his resurrection, Jesus had only a handful of people who believed in him as the Son of God. That handful grew and grew despite being tortured, imprisoned, and killed simply for refusing to deny that Jesus had risen from the dead and was the Son of God. It should have been the easiest little cult to stamp out. But not so.

Now, the church (lowercase-c) today and various church communities are not always the purest reflection of Jesus or his message. Jesus knew that would happen. That's why he told the parable of the tares (bad grain) and the wheat (good grain, useful for food). He said they had to be allowed to grow in the field together and that, in the end, the wheat would be saved and the tares would be destroyed.

I'm sorry that you have experienced rejection from churches and church communities. I can't speak for or change every church or every church community. I can only live my life in as close alignment with Christ and let Christ live his life through me and encourage others to do the same.