I just finished a very valuable but, in my mind, misguided book. While others beside me on the beach were lost in murder mysteries, I was being reminded that organized religion can be a deeply flawed institution.

But here’s where the writer and I differ: He decided that the problem ultimately lies with God, or no God. I believe that the problem (when there is a problem) lies with you, me and the person in the next pew – imperfect human beings who fall short of God’s glory. Our permanent failings are no reason to give up on God or the church. That’s the point William Lobdell misses in his provocative, new book, Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America – and Found Unexpected Peace.

Around the time I was covering religion for The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, Lobdell was doing the same for the Los Angeles Times. We never met. I’m not sure our paths ever crossed on the beat. But as I pored over pages filled with his memories – trying to keep them clean of sunblock – I could absolutely relate. He began the job of covering organized religion with a sense of awe about God and passion for the people he believed were doing God’s work. I started the gig with the same optimism and enthusiasm.

Then reality smacked us both in the face, in the form of pedophile priests, con-artist faith healers and greedy evangelists – all using God and religion for personal gain. Anyone who spends more than a few weeks chronicling the reality of American religion is going to get his or her hands dirty. Stop by my office and I’ll tell you about the Elvis lookalike who used to book a hall at the Charlotte Convention Center and peddle miracle water out of plastic jugs. Or about Jim Bakker.

The weight of it all brought Lobdell’s faith crashing down around him. “Like a homicide detective,” he writes, “I had seen too much.” His understandable cynicism mounted, as did his conviction that more than the dark side of faith rings hollow: “My life makes better sense now, without a personal God in the equation. My mind isn’t troubled by the unsolvable mysteries that plagued me as a believer…The laws of nature, circumstance and coincidence make more sense than the divine.”

This, my friends, is where Bill Lobdell and Ken Garfield took different paths.

I admire his work, respect his honesty and defend his right to believe or not to believe as he chooses. God bless him for challenging our assumptions. But covering faith healers peddling miracle water didn’t turn me off to God. Uncovering preying priests and the higher-ups who covered up their crimes didn’t blind me to the love that can grow when people of faith come together to serve the Lord they choose to follow. All that the bad stuff did was turn me off to the bad stuff – and stir me to commit my professional life to celebrating the goodness of God found wherever love is practiced in His name.

Every slice of life on this great earth has its troublemakers, including organized religion. They led William Lobdell to lose his faith and then write about it in a powerful book. It led me to cling more tightly to my faith and then write about our faith with ever-more hope.