If these people think the “saving Gospel of Jesus Christ …begins with the command to repent,” then it is no wonder they bring no one back to the church.
Some where, along the way, Crisis Magazine and apparently a lot of others have lost the plot completely. Jesus asked two things of us— just two: love God with all our hearts and souls and minds and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves. And in return the joy of being fully loved by a kind and merciful God is ours.
Yes, Jesus said a lot of things, all of them true, some of them seemingly contradictory.
One of those things was “Repent...”
This NOT contradictory because if one does not turn away from sin, they do not love God more than themselves, and cannot truly love their neighbor.