They will know we are Christians by our love.
Love, love, love.
Forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness.
In the wake of these South Carolina church shootings my husband and I go for walks and try to figure out how to save the world. Shall we make make bumper stickers that say "No God/No guns." This from consumate conservatives. We all got rights taken away after 9/11. When a white mother with her nursing baby gets frisked going through airport security you know we are off the rails in more ways than one. A nation without morals may have to be a nation with fewer guns. Please note that my entire extended family are hunters, including my precious dad, two grandpas and all my uncles and in-laws, and yet I've never seen or held a gun--they were that responsible. I felt safe hiking through Montana knowing that no grizzly would get by whatever it was that my dad was packing. Can we just give guns to the good guys? Could we please just legislate some morality here?
How do we pick and choose who gets it? How many times do I have to take my shoes and belt off and be x-rayed to get on an airplane. Why does the whole class have to stay in for recess?
And what about those SC families standing up in court and unanimously offering forgiveness--the next day? That's that kind of faith where your knee jerk reaction is love and forgiveness. It didn't take years of therapy--their faith was right there on the surface--where your first response is to drop to your knees. I know someone who is like that.
Hating in the name of God is religion off the rails. You can see it everywhere. From the dawn of time.
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord,
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord,
And we pray that all unity will one day be restored and
They'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love.
We are gonna learn this song around the campfire.
Lord, help my knee jerk reaction to be love and forgiveness. If they can do it, I can do it.
Amen
P.S. I promise to return to pleasant musical and family life topics. . . I just had to get this off my chest.
And they'll know we are Christians by our love.
ReplyDeleteWhile Savannah was learning to walk and until she was maybe three/four she only got Stride Rite sandles and Stride Rite white "winter" shoes. She was picked to take off her shoes to be "wanded" every time. And yet racial profiling is so ugly, too. But we do so much more damage to ourselves than terrorists from other countries will ever do. Perhaps we need to worry just as much about the logs in our own nations' eyes as the ones in other nations'.
Excellent post, Sara. I know you're a Christian by your love.