faith for misfits

In its purest form Christianity is a religion for misfits. Think about it, its original adherents included salty rough edged fishermen (think Deadliest Catch), a political radical, a tax collector, a thief, a goon squad leader and prostitutes.  Growing up in the church,  I like many in my generation (Gen X) and generations after me, have sensed that too often we have allowed our faith to regress to a list of rules.  Most of these rules that have nothing to do with the Bible.   Some well intentioned individuals have asked reasonable questions, unfortunately I am concerned their solutions often may be worse than the original problem.   I fear that this "Love Wins" theology logical path leads to just more religion.  Religion will be defined as doing works to earn favor from God.   I do not doubt the sincerity of those I intend to critique.  As a random health care worker in the background, I witnessed the primary proponent  of Love Wins theology demonstrate admirable compassion to a grandmother who was picking up the pieces of a horrible and tragic situation.   I will attempt to share insight from my past as well as (I hope) the force of reason to address this new trend in theology.