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I was so excited to see Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church on the cover of Christianity Today ["How Tim Keller Found Manhattan," June]. Having grown up in New York, walking away from faith in college, being singularly driven by my professional career in my 20s, then realizing its emptiness and reconnecting with God in my 30s, I am one of those perfect fits at Redeemer.

Keller is the quintessential pastor for creative, smart, diversified, strong-willed New Yorkers with lots of questions about faith. Undoubtedly he is brilliant, but for New Yorkers, who instinctively can smell a scam a mile away, his authenticity is what is most remarkable and most believable.

Lis Ippolito
River Edge, New Jersey

Bravo to tim stafford for his fine piece on Tim Keller. Back in the early '90s, I volunteered with Redeemer's college ministry, leading a cell group at the School of Visual Arts. While I was attending a meeting at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Keller was invited to speak alongside the campus's Muslim minister. After the question-and-answer session, having seen my hand raised earlier in the evening, Keller craned his neck toward me and said, "Did you have a question, Kevin?" As if that were not enough, his follow-up was, "So, what have you been reading lately?"

Keller has a pastor's heart first and foremost, and it's encouraging to know he's training the next generation of urban pastors to carry on his legacy.

Kevin Daniels
Lakewood, Ohio

CT's June issue provided an excellent and important editorial on immigration ["Soul of the Border Crisis"]. Our legislators need to be about the work of forming a just, compassionate, and sensible immigration system, which will take reform seriously, and those of us who follow Christ need to be nudging them toward action. But when it does happen, and even before, our churches also need to be places where, in keeping with the biblical command, immigrants are welcomed into our society.

Matthew Soerens
Immigration Counselor, World Relief
Wheaton, Illinois

CT's Editorial on solving the illegal immigration mess was long on compassion and short on wisdom. Should the church help lawbreakers profit from their crime? Won't that encourage more to come, the border fence notwithstanding? Also, the editorial's language left something to be desired. What's an "otherwise law-abiding illegal," and what are "market-sensitive guidelines" and "humane enforcement methods"? These terms will mean quite different things to different people.

I suggest having churches raise the money to send immigrants home and send church members with them to teach them how to start businesses and enter politics to turn their countries into places where they want to stay. Mexico, for example, is one of the richest countries in the world; until its people turn it into an honest democracy, illegals will continue to flood our border. Your proposed solution will only kick the bucket down the road a bit and further align the church with law-breaking sanctuary churches.

L. James Harvey
Caledonia, Michigan

Thank you for bringing to the fore the discussion on justification with your article on N. T. Wright and John Piper's differing views ["The Justification Debate: A Primer," June]. Of course, the debate and range of views are far wider, and I would say richer, than the alternatives presented in the primer, as can be seen from sources that run from Thomas C. Oden's Justification Reader to the 1999 Lutheran Roman Catholic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification and the many responses to the latter around the world.

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August 2009, Vol. 53, No. 8