I just read one of the most powerful chapters of my life, it is found in Philip Yancey's book What's So Amazing About Grace, titled Grace-Healed Eyes. The beauty of the chapter I can hardly put to words, but here are a few of the final lines:

"We may be abominations but we are still God's pride and joy."

"To love a person, means to see him as God intended him to be." -Dostoevsky

Instead of offering grace to a world desperate for it, we often try to tighten the belt of moralism and judgment believing it is that which will help keep our national pants up. That has failed and it is time that we admit that we stand nude, or continue to live in denial with our ass hanging in the wind.