James Walters felt led by God to move across the country to join a church staff and start a new ministry. Three years later, nothing had turned out as James had hoped, and he wondered why God led him into that wilderness. In his estimation, it was a con. A con with a holy purpose, but still a con. And if so, that would make God a "celestial Con Man," in James's words. If you haven't read it, his Insight is posted here.

As expected, that drew a lot of response from Leadership Weekly readers. Here are some excerpts from the mailbag.

To: Eric Reed, Managing Editor:
If, in fact, you "are not sure I want to call God a 'con man,' then why would you provide a forum for a "guest columnist" to propose such an absurd analogy? As the Managing Editor, I question what you might have been managing and where was your editing? … There is no divine con; we con ourselves when we do not recognize the scriptural declaration that God's ways are not our ways!
—PH

Hi, James, Man, the article you ...