… He [Jesus] never refuses a single person who comes to him with an honest request … he turns no one away … “I think the most astounding thing … and really it is an astounding thing … is the infidelity of us, his followers, to just that point … that the following of Christ could have – at any one time – presented itself … turned into an instrument of division, of violence, of rejection, of guilt … it’s astounding! All one has to do – really – is come from Mars and read the gospel … it is the proclamation of absolute infinite mercy. Usually they say be good and Jesus will love you – but if you read the gospel it was the other way around. Jesus said “I don’t condemn you” to this woman and then said “Be good.” He didn’t say “Be good” and then “I don’t condemn you, I love you, now sin no more.” Live by that acceptance. I accept you unconditionally. How on earth we could have turned this around – and we have totally turned this into a stifling moralism – turned grace into law again – I don’t understand. That to me is the greatest mystery of all.”
Lorenzo Albacete on Charlie Rose (at 6:07)