It's election season. And it seems that every election season brings its own set of drama. But, maybe it's just because I'm more informed than ever before, or maybe it's that this is only the second time I can vote and I think I made the wrong choice last time around (sorry world...), but it seems to me that this election season has brought on more drama than usual.
And I'm a little - a lot - embarrassed.
Christians across the country (and maybe even around the world) are giving my Lord a bad name. My Jesus is not pro-war, pro-rich, pro-death, pro-judgement, pro-racism, pro-violence, pro-mudslinging, or pro-discrimination. My Jesus does not ride into battle in a tank. My Jesus does not make cartoons calling the homeless lazy. My Jesus does not use out-of-context proof texts to name someone as the Antichrist. My Jesus does not call someone terrorist, or insinuate that to be Arab is to be dangerous. My Jesus doesn't shout "Off with his head!" at the sound of someone's name.
No, my Jesus is pro-love, pro-charity, pro-life (and, therefore, I believe anti-death penalty, anti-war, and anti-anything that brings death), pro-acceptance, pro-healing, pro-meekness, pro peace. My Jesus rides on a donkey, not to bring hatred and violence, but to bring a violent love. My Jesus silently endured the shouts cast at his own name, led like a lamb to the slaughter.
My Jesus taught us beauty. My Jesus taught us to serve the widow, the orphan, the foreigner. He taught us to live in such a way that no one should ever be in want - even if it means giving up of ourselves (and our hard-earned money) in order to do so.
America likes to call itself a Christian nation. And yet there is violence. There is hatred. There are those in need, and, what's worse, they are abandoned by those who have more than enough to help. Because we are so concerned about our own comfort - so "in need" of that Wii, that car, that computer, those extra 100 channels on your TV, those extra 3 seconds saved by a faster internet connection - we refuse to help those who are in need of food, clean water, and a roof over their heads. We refuse to help the ones who don't even have the basic human needs, when we have more than some could ever ask for.
And so I apologize. I apologize for all those "Christians" who work so hard to prove someone is the Antichrist, a terrorist, or a killer. I apologize for all those "Christians" who throw around words of hate. I apologize for all those "Christians" who will not help, even in the face of a God who went so far as to suffer torture and death on our behalf.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
Phil. 2:5-7
He emptied himself. Emptied himself. Made himself nothing.
My Jesus is beauty. My Jesus is love. My Jesus is peace and selflessness and mercy and grace. And now we are the body of Christ here on earth, and we let it lie limp. We throw it back in the tomb to let it rot, lest we lose our comfort.
I'm sorry for the very unChristian behavior of some "Christians" as of late.
They are not my Jesus.
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