Note: This post was written as a newsletter article.
On
August 12, 2017, a large protest took place in Charlottesville. Prompted by the proposed removal of a statue
of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, white supremacists and self-described
Nazis came into town to march, shouting racist epithets and anti-Semitic
slogans. Counter-protestors from local
churches and civil rights groups, as well as outside groups like Black Lives
Matter and Antifa, also marched in the streets of Charlottesville. Clashes inevitably occurred, and at the end
of the day dozens of people were injured and one counter-protestor, Heather
Heyer, was murdered. Two Virginia state
troopers who were helping with the police response also died in a helicopter
crash.
Public
discourse in the intervening days has been harsh. President Trump and former President Obama
have been blamed, Nazis and counter-protestors alike have been vilified, and otherwise
friendly neighbors have been at each other’s throats. I even heard a friend, a self-identified
Christian, claim that the people on the other side should have been shot. Battle lines have been drawn, and it appears
that our culture is continuing to tear itself apart. In the face of such division and hate, what
can we as Christians do? What can we as
Christ’s church do?
First,
we can be clear on this fundamental truth:
God is not racist, and thus the church should not endorse or even
tolerate racism. The apostle Paul tells
us in Romans that “there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same
Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him” (Rom. 10:12). He
goes further in Galatians to say “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all
one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). The book of James calls favoritism a sin
(James 2:9), and the book of Revelation tells us that at the end of all things,
in God’s perfect kingdom realized on earth as it is in heaven, people from
every nation and tribe and tongue will be joined together before the throne of
God (Rev. 7:9-10). If we pray every
week, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” then
racism has no place in the life of the Christian or the church, and we need to
say so.
The
second way we can respond is to actually do what Jesus commands us to do: love our enemies. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his
followers, “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.” (Mt. 5:43-44) Far too often, the world says
that those who are different than us, those who oppose us, and especially those
who hurt us are to be struck back at hard.
Jesus does things differently. We
are to love those who are opposed to us.
I’m not quite sure what that looks like when you’re talking about street
fighting and Nazis, but it at the least means not hating our enemy’s guts, seeing
them as a child of God even when we don’t respect their ideas, and not seeking
their harm. We don’t have a choice in
the matter – it’s what Jesus explicitly told us to do.
A third
and final way that we can respond to the tragedy of Charlottesville is to do
what we can to actually live out our faith.
I can’t tell you how often I’ve lamented the state of things in the
world, in our country, in our society. I
also can’t tell you how often I’ve heard members of our church say the same
thing. But what are we doing about it? Most of the time, in fact, we do the exact
same thing as everyone else; we divide up into sides, cut ourselves off from
the other, and demonize anyone who is different than us. That’s how the world works, and we go right
along with the world. But what if we
didn’t do that? What if we actually
lived differently – pursuing the good of everyone, loving our enemies, standing
up for the weak, supporting initiatives that promote unity and justice no
matter who suggests them? What if we
stopped identifying as liberals or conservatives, Republicans or Democrats, and
just identified as followers of Jesus?
Would we do things differently? I
sure hope I would – and I sure hope you would as well. It’s not an easy thing to do – Jesus tells
his disciples that following him is like picking up our own cross and following
him to death (Mt. 16:24) – but it is the path of Christian faithfulness. And do you know what? When we live that way, when we set aside our
other allegiances and identities and strive to live like Jesus, we find that
other people notice, and we’re making a difference in our own little corner of
the world.
A week and a half ago, events in Charlottesville highlighted yet again the sinful
divisiveness of our society and the fundamental evil that is racism. In the face of such evil, the church and the
Christian has a responsibility to live as the people of God. How are we living out our faith? What are we saying? And what are we doing to try to heal our
community and our world?
In
Christ,
Adam
Comments
Post a Comment