Example essay--Final draft (I think)

Alyssa Kennison


Mrs. S. Aiken

English 1101

October 1, 2009

So-called Sinners and Saints

A preacher stands before his congregation and announces that his divorce has been finalized. He asks to not be judged and admits the error of his ways. He says it simply didn’t work and the details are between him and God. Later he announces that he is not only newly divorced, but also he is now engaged to another woman. Does this surprise you? More than likely it does because this isn’t something people expect out of a man of God.

A young woman and her fiancé go to church every Sunday. They also participate in weekday church events. The couple finds out they are expecting a child. Considering that sex before marriage is a sin in the Christian religion, this is not what you might expect from a churchgoing couple, right?

Another man goes to church. He reached some hard times in life and became strung out on methamphetamines. Through all this he remained in church. Now he has been saved and “clean” for four years. Is his past what you would expect?

Are any of these people bad people? Are they any less of a Christian? Think about this: A man lives on the street. He has never been to church a day in his life. This man is an Alcoholic and lost his family because he was extremely violent. Does this surprise you? More than likely it does not. This it because he is not the so-called churchgoing Christian.

People often have the misconception that if a person is a die-hard Christian, meaning that they go to church every chance, read the bible, and preaches to others that they have no sins. This is simply not true. The scriptures from the Bible assert that everyone sins. “For all has sin and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace and through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24, KJV). This means no one is perfect, including the churchgoing Christians. Sinning does not necessarily make you a bad person. We are expected to sin: ask for forgiveness and our sins will be forgiven. So, churchgoers are not perfect and should not be expected to be.