This is precisely the kind of behavior one would wish from a group of people who know their own sin, and who are trying to follow a good example set for them:

As soon as the visitor from Denver walked through the church doors Sunday morning, heads turned. Word spread quickly: He was here.

Just about every person who offered him a handshake said the same thing: Welcome, thank you and God bless.

About 14,000 people pour into New Life Church in Colorado Springs each Sunday, so anonymity is not difficult to achieve.

One exception is when you are Mike Jones, the former male prostitute whose allegations of a three-year sexual liaison with church founder Ted Haggard triggered national scandal and led to Haggard's fall.

Jones attended services Sunday at New Life Church on a reconnaissance mission for his forthcoming book and said he was greeted warmly. Haggard, in an apology to the church, had urged members to forgive and thank Jones for exposing deceit...

"A couple of ladies cried when they were touching me," Jones said. "I was thanked for exposing the church, for helping Ted Haggard. A couple of them said they hoped I get God into my life. And they all said 'God bless you,' every one of them."

And this, sadly, sounds like a not-totally-unexpected response from someone who'd admitted, at the outset, that he had a bit of an axe to grind:

Jones was accompanied Sunday by members of a New York- based theater troupe, the Civilians, who are in Colorado Springs researching a project on evangelicals. Church leaders were told in advance of the visit...

... Jones - who came forward out of anger toward Haggard's political stances against homosexuality - said he wasn't impressed on the whole. If the Gospel message is enough, he said, why the loud music and MTV-quality production?

"There seems to be something missing, some realism, in my opinion, because it's so vast, like some kind of self-contained city," said Jones, who said he was raised Methodist but is estranged from organized religion.

I dunno, something about his response doesn't make sense to me. Methodist churches are generally fairly small and intimate, but apparently those must have also lacked "realism". And does he question Bono's sincerity, or LiveAid, because such concerns are also associated with "loud music and MTV-quality production"?

Or is this just one of those damned if you do/don't situations?

The gospel is about straightening out one's relationship with God. That's spiritual, and we're all spiritual beings. But that doesn't preclude other needs in life: Nobody claims the gospel will allow them to go without food, social contacts, or sleep. Why should it also exclude a love of modern music or group activities? People go to rock concerts -- is it suddenly bad to do the same thing if the content is less degrading?

Lastly, and conversely, one also wonders about the "authenticity" of a visit to a Colorado church which is accompanied by a New York Theater Troupe.