When you want legal help, you go to a lawyer. When you want ecclesiastical guidance, you go to a minister.

We got lucky. We went to one man and got both. His name is Chuck Wilkes, senior pastor of True North Church in Hayden, a member of the Nazarene family. Its evangelical congregation leans conservative. With Pastor Chuck at the helm, grace and truth are inextricably woven into virtually every message he delivers. As a minister, pounding down any particular political path is never his purpose. As a lawyer, he sees quite clearly the laws of God and of men.

We'd like to emphasize that today's front page story was not Pastor Chuck's doing, but ours. We became aware of him last October when his letter to the editor clarified that his church and a local political action committee of the same name were not at all the same entity. "True North Church takes no action on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate in any election," he wrote last fall. And we filed that away as a source who might be able to shed unique light at a future date.That date arrived with the May 20 primary election influenced by the Coeur d'Alene Ministerial Association. In the grand scheme of things, the association's impact was probably not as profound as some critics suggest; the Republican Party's desire for a closed primary that shuts out most independent-minded voters deserves the lion's share of credit or blame. But it clearly played a role in the outcome and fed a voracious appetite to compare local political phenomena with national trends.

In Pastor Chuck, we heard a voice of reason. We also heard a most clear enunciation of the bigger game afoot: Truly loving one another and making this community the very best it can be; living with grace."Grace" is defined in Christian context as "the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings." It also means "a controlled, polite, and pleasant way of behaving." Put those definitions together and we have a roadmap for better behavior, a clearly marked pathway to making our community stronger.

We're grateful to Pastor Chuck for providing today's sermon.