Should the Church be perfect?

With all the teaching on good values and virtues it seems natural for the world to expect Christ's Church to be a squeaky clean institution that every member can be proud of.  But the fact is, church history is marred with stains of crime and cruelty, like the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, and more recently Jim and Tammy Baker plus a whole host of child molesting priests and pastors.  When confronted with these facts we become speechless.

But Christians should know better than to expect the Church to be perfect.  Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous but sinners." (Mark 2:17)  To become a Christian, one does not require a criminal check, a moral index check, nor any other condition.  All are welcome as they are; the door is wide open for anyone who desires Christ.  As a result, sinners come carrying their old selves and old habits.

Richard Wurmbrand said it best, "A hospital may stink of pus and blood; in that lies its beauty, for it receives the sick with their disgusting sores and horrible diseases.  The Church is Christ's own hospital.  Millions of patients are treated in it, with love.  The Church accepts sinners - they continue to sin, and for their transgressions the Church is blamed....The politics and prejudices of its servants are distortions of what comes from God -- that is, the Bible and its teachings, worship and the sacraments.  Whatever its faults, the Church has much that is sublime in it.  The sea drowns thousands of people in it every year, but no one contests its beauty." (p. 28, In God's Underground)