Last Wednesday night, the Center for Christian Thought and the Center for Marriage and Relationships sponsored a three-hour event called Love No Matter What: Politics, Sex, Race, and the Way of the Cross at Biola University in which five brilliant speakers presented on the topic of how to model Christ’s compassion and bridge the gap between divides of culture, race, gender, and politics.
So often the Christians you hear about in the news are obnoxious, bigoted, and hateful. That couldn't be more true of the current presidential election. For that I am so very sorry. I'm not particularly fond of these kinds of Christian people either and I'm ashamed to be associated with them merely by the title of my faith.
But this isn't how Christians are called to interact with the world. These kinds of “Christians” have misrepresented the way we are to live. We are to live lives that represent Jesus Christ. Lives that are in fact polar opposite to what we are accustomed to seeing on television. Lives that are characterized by love, compassion, and Truth (with a capital “T”).
It is dangerous to allow our dislike for someone or disagreement with them to change the way we treat them and talk with or about them while also proclaiming to follow Christ. This is not how to represent Christ well. Because the more you love God, the larger your capacity should be to love difficult people.
However, we love conflict. It's a heck of a lot more entertaining than peace is. We like the idea of peace and say we’d love world peace, but what would happen if we actually attained it? We’d be bored. That’s why people think that Heaven is so dull and Hell seems like so much more fun. That's why we like dramas, TV shows, and movies. Conflict and action.
Matthew 5:43-44
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”
There is no exception for who you are to love. This is all inclusive of those in the LGBTQIA community, Republicans, Democrats, or anyone with differing political parties than you, African-Americans, others of different cultures and ethnicities, and so on. None of these people are out-rightly your enemies, but even if they were or you perceived them as such we are called to love them. You accomplish nothing but vanity if you only love those who are like you and who love you back.
1 John 4:18-21
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
Christians’ theological convictions must never be a means to marginalize, outcast, or treat others as less-than. No one has any right to marginalize anyone else. Jesus has called us to the margins and to cross over boundaries for the purpose of love. We can’t marginalize people and then go try to “love” them. That isn’t real love nor will it be received well.
To clarify, when you welcome these people into your church or into your communities to love them is not to tolerate them nor is it to treat them like projects or things to be fixed, just treat them like people. Be kind to them.
*based on presentations by Caleb Kaltenbach, Dr. Barry Corey, Christina Cleveland, Stanley Hauerwas, and Sister Helen Prejean
