Bring on the schmaltz

I hope I’m wrong, but I sense within many churches a kind of dumbing down on God’s command to love God and neighbor today. I’ve seen too many churches that are governed by a kind of creeping sentimentalism that pretends to be love. Are we permitting Jesus’ world-changing agape love to morph into schmaltziness and the gushy stuff of greeting cards?—America and Its Guns: A Theological Expose, pages 209–10

<idle musing>
An especially relevant question this time year! Is the cross about gushy, sentimentalism? No way! The cross shows the depth of God's love for humanity.
>/idle musing>