When I get one doctrine firmly established in my mind, along comes a preacher to tell me that my puny little faith statement is not a central religious doctrine in this postmodern age.

For instance, I once believed the Ten Commandments were extremely important guides to moral behavior. But recently it has been brought to my attention the church does not believe in the Ten Commandments, or at least the church does not believe they are as important as they once were.

For instance, how long has it been since you heard a good sermon about bearing false witness - about not lying and refraining from gossip? Why, I wonder how many people even know what bearing false witness really means. Do you think there might be some people who would just shrug if you accused them of bearing false witness? It's true, we don't know what it means because we don't talk about this sin in our present society.

We also don't talk about greed, coveting, stealing, murdering and a host of other sins that have formed the basis of the Judeo-Christian moral code for centuries.

And we don't talk about these dismal acts because our preachers have stopped talking about them. If you asked preachers why they don't talk about the Ten Commandments they will smile piously and say, "It never occurs to me to preach the law."

Then what are they preaching? Some are really into pablum, baby food for the soul. Some are into mush, talk that can't be understood. And some are into pulp, talk that appears nourishing but isn't.

As a result, we don't know what we believe. Doctrine is gone and certainly no longer a balm for the sin-sick soul.

In fact, I think most preachers are totally unable to talk about God's law, and even if they could, they are afraid of offending a generous donor in their midst.

Therefore, our culture has proclaimed there are now only two sins we will talk about in the Christian church and they are ABORTION and HOMOSEXUALITY.

These two sins are sustained by the culture and the church because they don't touch many people sitting in the pews. Sure we have people in our churches who were party to an abortion, but they aren't admitting it. And we have members of our churches who are gay men or lesbians, but many of them are also not talking.

Therefore, it is easy for clergy to point a bony finger at people who have aborted a fetus or at people who are homosexual. The insinuation is they are the only sinners around. And that leaves everyone sitting in the pews feeling superior and washed in the blood of the Lamb.

I remember a woman who was interviewing for a job as the pastor of a church. She was on the final interview and had kept everyone happy through three previous interviews. She was beginning to get a little upset over the amount of time she had spent interviewing for a job that paid less than the salary for an assistant trash hauler.

Then she blew it at the end of the final interview when one of the more annoying members of the search committee asked her a sensitive question: "Reverend Jones, would you please tell us how you feel about homosexuals?"

Pastor Jones, a married woman with children, said, "Why are you asking me about homosexuals? Do you have big problems with homosexuals here at St. Bob's by the Body Shop? Are homosexuals stealing your money, beating people to death or blocking roads with their protests? Why do you want to know how I FEEL about homosexuals? Why don't you want to know how I FEEL about the poor, about children going without meals, about people who can't find work or about bad educational systems. Why don't you ask me a question that matters to your community?"

Rev. Jones was not hired by St. Bob's by the Body Shop. In fact, the search committee didn't even get around to asking the next prepared question, which was how she felt about abortion.

All I want is for someone to talk about all the sins bending our culture nearly out of shape. Is that too much to ask?

Clark D. Morphew