Religion: The Deaths of a Church

For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

—II Corinthians 3:6

The hamlet of Marble, high up on the Crystal River in the mountains of central Colorado, has a population of eight that is swelled by summer residents to 58, plus tourists. To the summer citizens, their tiny, white-frame church seemed last week to be a set-piece proof of Paul's point about the letter and the spirit.

St. Paul's Church was built in Aspen, 60 miles across the mountains, when Aspen was a booming mine town instead of the ski-and-culture resort it is today....

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