I so wanted to rip their heads off. To yell at them, to show them how stupid they were being.
There are all these little private chat groups on Facebook, and if you’ve got any media-chatty or politically active friends, you’ve probably been sucked into some of them. This one was an alumni group from the Christian university I attended. And the discussion was — surprise, surprise — about the president and his recent policies.
I wanted to yell at them and tell them Jesus opposed everything they stood for. All their nationalistic pride, their anti-immigrant hostility, their anti-equality, anti-LGBTQ rights positions. Their dismantling of social safety nets for our seniors and the poor, for children. Their lifting safeguards that prevent poisoning our water and destroying our planet. Couldn’t they see how unholy they were being?
If I could, I’d probably strip their voting rights away. I’d silence their ugly voices. I’d make it so they couldn’t do harm to people, to the planet, to our country.
Yeah. Until I thought about it for two more seconds. I can’t drag Jesus into my arguments — even when I feel it is so clearly justified — because they can too. We each read and hear what we want to see and hear. The Bible, the Gospels, Jesus, only speak to us where we are, what we’re willing or able to accept right now. When people try to quote Jesus at me to prove me wrong, I almost always think they’re misunderstanding him. And, of course, that’s what they think when I do it to… [Read more…] about A Kind of “Love” I Can Live With