Further Along the Road Less Traveled

From M. Scott Peck (via. Timothy Johnson, "Finding God in the Questions")

"I was absolutely thunderstruck by the extraordinary reality of the man I found in the Gospels...I discovered a man so incredibly real that no one could have made Him up. It occurred to me then that if the Gospel writers had been into PR and embellishment, as I had assumed, they would have created the kind of Jesus three quarters of Christians still seem to be trying to create...portrayed with a sweet, unending smile on His face, patting little children on the head, just strolling the earth with this unflappable, unshakable equanimity...But the Jesus of the Gospels-- who some suggest is the best-kept secret of Christianity--did not have much "peace of mind," as we ordinarily think of peace of mind in the world's terms, and insofar as we can be His followers, perhaps we won't either...It is as if most Christians haven't read the Gospels, and most Christian clergy are not even able to preach the real truth of the Gospels, because if they did, their congregations would flee out the door."