ANCHORAGE, ALASKA - When Nelda and Michael Rico visited the Anchorage Church of Christ a few years ago, they didn’t know anybody. Nelda, a nurse at Providence Alaska Medical Center, had moved here from the southern part of the United States. Neither she nor her husband, Michael, a retired hospital worker, had ever been inside the church.

When the invitation song was sung that morning, a solitary figure walked down the long aisle toward the minister, who sat down with her on the front row. The preacher soon rose to read the woman’s response card. An extramarital relationship was the gist of it.

It wasn’t the word “adultery” that shocked the Ricos. It was the church’s response.

“Suddenly, it seemed like hundreds of people began pouring out of the aisles and rushing toward the woman,” Nelda said. “People stood in long lines to hug her and love her.”

Nelda shook her head in disbelief as she recalled the experience. “The places I went to church before never would have done that,” she said. “They would have shunned her and basically told her to pack her bags and get out.”

From that moment on, Nelda and Michael knew that the Anchorage church was the one for them. read more

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