Category: Compassion

Healing For Divisions

How do we cross the divides? Whether cultural, social, or political, where do we find common ground? How do we recognize our common humanity?

Divisions reveal the breakdown of our humanity. Our divisions surface from the hollowing out of our humanity. A humanity meant to manifest love loses its humanity when it ceases to love.

For the dividing walls to come down, we must recognize our inhumanity in light of our humanity. And there must be a renewal of our humanity and a renewal of love.

Until we acknowledge that we are to “love our neighbors as ourselves,” we will rationalize our behavior. We will legitimize our divisions. We will treat our inhumanity toward others as necessary and love as impossible.

Change comes when we seek quiet moments of interior reflection in which we allow ourselves to recognize the loss of our humanity in our stinginess, belligerence, unfairness, dishonesty, prejudices and unloving actions. We acknowledge our inhumanity in our refusal to love our neighbor, especially our neighbor who does not think or operate like us or who we have viewed as an enemy.

In the silence of introspection, we may hear the still small voice calling us to love our neighbor. Rather than throw back at another what they have thrown at us, we take a step toward love by forgiving them. And then we look for what else love can do. We may even see that Jesus is right when he tells us to love our enemies. We were meant for love, and it is possible to love another who does not love us. It is possible to look beyond another’s brokenness and see their need.

The divisions in our society are only addressed by a love that sees beyond the inhumanity of the other to their humanity. The image of God stamped on our humanity may be effaced, but it is not destroyed. So we find a way to speak and act in recognition of the humanity of others, whether we experience their actions as humane or not.

There is no recovery from our divisions if we remain focused on another’s inhumanity, on their cruelty, hate, distorted values, fears and prejudices, and treat them as unredeemable. By words and actions we must call one another back to humanity: Speak against inhumanity and for humanity. Act against hate and for love.

At times that may mean speaking hard words of love that call out the inhumanity of one toward another, so that the inhumanity of one can be seen for what it is and the one who is being harmed be recognized in their injury. (Love is not the same thing as being nice.)

This is what I recognize Jesus doing when he called out religious leaders who “tied up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and laid them on the shoulders of others, but were unwilling to lift a finger to move them.” He called them back to their humanity when he addressed what they had become: “You are like whitewashed tombs….On the outside you look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Love speaks hard words when necessary.

God, the source of love and our true humanity calls us back to our humanity as children of God. Only as children of God empowered to love do our divisions lose their power and break down.

Filed under: Compassion, Healing, Love, SpiritualityTagged with: ,

Lawlessness and the Law of Love

The lawlessness of the president of the United States has often been noted as he has ignored the United States Constitution, its laws, and the legislation passed by congress, in order to increase his power and press forward with his agenda which has included avenging himself against his perceived enemies.

Beyond the laws of a nation, however, their is a deeper law that binds us together. It is the law of our fundamental humanity. St. Paul expresses it: “The whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14)

Jesus speaks in a similar way when asked what is the greatest commandment: “The first is…‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 12:29-31)

The love of neighbor is powerful for healing our divisions.

Jesus is asked, “Who is my neighbor?” So, Jesus tells a story of a man who “fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead.” Two very religious people, who see him lying to the side of the road, pass by on the other side, afraid to get involved. But a Samaritan comes upon this wounded Jewish man (there was enmity between Samaritans and Jews) and is “moved with compassion” and “bandaged his wounds” and “took care of him.” Jesus asked who “was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The hearer of this story, answered, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:29-37)

Recently, in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, ICE agents raided an apartment building overnight, breaking down doors, and removing people from their beds along with children. The apartment occupants were zip tied and forced into waiting vehicles. A witness across the street said, “she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans.” A 67 year old man tried to reason with the ICE agents, telling them he was a US citizen and asking if they had a warrant for breaking into his apartment. He was left outside in zip ties for several hours before they let him go. (WBEZ Chicago)

When we move away from love and compassion, we become capable of all kinds of inhuman acts. If any of those ICE agents could see their own children in the children that they put into vans, it is hard to imagine they could operate in the way they did. That is true also for everyone who oversaw the action and those who were the policy makers for such actions.

It is because of this distance from our true humanity rooted in love that Jesus calls us to repent, to turn to back God. Rather than operate as if we were the gods of our own lives (and the lives of others), Jesus tells us to relinquish our lives to God. He tells us to lose our lives and we will find our true selves, and we will find the love of God poured into our hearts by the Spirit.

The movement into loving our neighbors as ourselves is a spiritual movement. It is a movement of the Spirit of God who enables us to let go of our lives to God, so that we become available to God for the work of love in the lives of others.

Paul writes of the Spirit of God at work in us to bring us to our full humanity as children of God. He lists the kind of fruit that the Spirit produces in us when we let go, and let God. We come to bear fruit that the Spirit produces.

He gives examples of this fruit of the Spirit: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” And then he adds, “There is no law against such things.” (Galatians 5:22-23) No other law is needed, if we are coming to know and live out the law of love in Christ by the help of the Spirit.

Filed under: Compassion, Justice, Love, Mercy, SpiritualityTagged with: , ,

Christian Leaders and the Priorities of Jesus

When Peter James and John, who were fishing on the Sea of Galilee, were called by Jesus to follow him, we are told that they left everything to follow him. They went where he went, into small towns and across the countryside where people in large numbers came out to him.

They went to people who were marginalized by sickness, lepers who had to stay outside the community; they went to people in need of God’s healing and deliverance. Jesus led his followers out to welcome “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” These followers became part of Jesus’ mission “to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed.”

Jesus still comes to needy people today through his followers. In fact, you can recognize followers of Jesus by their compassion for those who are pressed to the margins of our society and who care for others regardless of their station in life. Followers of Jesus—when they are following Jesus—look beyond people’s faults and see their needs. With the grace and transformation they have experienced in Christ, they serve, most of them out of the limelight. They themselves are broken people reaching out to other broken people with the mercy and healing they have received.

You know Jesus’ followers by their actions, not by their doctrines and theologies. You know them by their compassion. Not all who name the name of Christ, know Christ. And not all who do not go by the name Christian are distant from Christ. In their actions, it can be seen that they have touched the Christ reality.

Jesus said, “They will know you by your love.” They will not know you because you prospered and became rich—and praised God for your status in a world that makes much of the rich and powerful. They will not know you by a politics that judges others and categorizes the “sinners” of our age. (The religious leaders of Jesus day ridiculed Jesus for eating with sinners. And Jesus did not hold back words of judgment regarding the actions of religious leaders whose religion operated far from the heart of God.)

James, who was very possibly a brother of Jesus, sounds like Jesus when he calls out those who have made themselves rich by the impoverishment of others. James wrote:

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure during the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

There are many who put themselves forward as Christian leaders who avoid this text from the Bible. And yet it is a word for our times. We have leaders with money and power who craft legislation that furthers their riches and power on the backs of those who struggle to get food on the table and get the health care they need. They judge others for their poverty while giving handouts to themselves, taking from those we came to see as “essential workers” during the COVID health crisis.

What do we make of the “big, beautiful bill” our president is pushing through congress? How do we understand its meaning and discern its impact? Who is it crafted for? What kinds of rationalizations and justifications are being promulgated to sell the bill to people it will not help? How are people viewed in this bill? How are the rich viewed? How are the poor viewed?

To leaders, especially religious leaders, Jesus said, “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.”

Filed under: Compassion, Discernment, Discipleship, Justice, Leadership, Mercy, Society

Hope in the Midst of Despair

Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)

Hope is powerful. It makes both inner peace and outward action possible in the most distressing situations. When we lose hope, we lose peace and the ability to act. When we have hope, true life-giving change is possible.

Hope is not the same as optimism. I find myself looking for signs in our culture and politics that would give reason for optimism. Some days are better than others. One day provides circumstances and situations that give some measure of optimistic outlook only to have the next day’s occurrences shatter the previous days optimism.

Hope is different. Hope reaches beyond all situations and circumstances. It transcends our limited views and actions. It is an aspect of our infinite openness. It finds its source and resting place in God.

Hope is like the faith that moves beyond our personal capabilities to the One who holds our lives together. It is like the love that can have us saying, “I will love you forever” because we experience a forever, unconditional love that looks beyond faults—a “love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”

Hope has that same kind of transcendence. That is why Paul names faith, hope and love as eternal. They abide when everything else falls away—or fails.

Optimism, dependent as it is on circumstances, has little power for action and for bringing about change. It can quickly move to pessimism and despair. Hope, on the other hand, is not governed by present situations. It views the present difficulties before the expanse of what could be, of what truly brings life and makes room for love and trust. It comes with vision for a future with hope, for love that reigns in human hearts, and with a faithfulness to a higher calling—the call to our true humanity made in the image of the God who is Love.

When I see people bringing life-giving change, I see people with hope. I also see that they love people, that they exhibit compassion and therefore look beyond others’ faults in order to act for their uplift—and for the transformation of our world situation. I also see trustworthiness. They do not simply talk the talk, but walk the walk. They have the staying power of abiding faith, hope, and love.

The trinity of faith, hope, and love is available to all. It is near to all. It is as near as our true humanity which is as near as the reign of God. Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.” That is, turn to what is near. Turn to God’s presence and let God reign in your heart. Turn to your true self in the God who is near, and receive a self that grows in trust, hope, and love.

”May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

Filed under: Compassion, Hope, Humanity, Love, Society, Spirituality

Refugees In Our Midst

God enacts justice for orphans and widows, and he loves immigrants, giving them food and clothing. That means you must also love immigrants because you were immigrants in Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:18-19)

These words from Deuteronomy, in the Bible, were directed to those who “revere the Lord your God” and who “serve him, cling to him,” a people who themselves had been immigrants. They had been immigrants who then were enslaved. They knew what it was to be received into a land and then mistreated.

God says to them that they were not to be like that with those who came into their land. They were to love immigrants because they had been immigrants and because God loved and welcomed them.

This message from the Bible is especially for those who read the Bible as their sacred text, who hear in these words a word of the Lord.

For those who believe in the God who loves immigrants, it is impossible to support what is happening in our nation and the actions of our leaders in regard to immigrants. We are to care for the sojourner in our land. It makes no difference how they came here. They remain human beings made in the image of God in our midst, with needs. We are not to turn away from them. We are not to add to their burdens. We are not to demean them, treating them all as criminals, so as not to feel we have a responsibility for their welfare.

This is a word especially for those who see themselves as people of the Book, of the Bible and as Christians. If we are unwilling to welcome the sojourner, if we refuse care and a place for those who have fled from harm, if we would only add to their harm, it would be better not to call ourselves Christian, that is, persons who have come to be in Christ.

If we have come to be in Christ, the Christ in us does not allow us to disregard other human beings created in God’s image. The love of Christ compels us to respond to their needs—which means getting to know them and their actual needs.

Whatever the laws of our land are or become, we have to live by the law of love which we have come to know in Christ. We must not make of our nation or its laws an idol. We are children of God, before we are citizens of a particular nation. That is why St. Paul calls us “fellow citizens with God’s people.”

We have learned to recognize fellow citizens of a common humanity across national borders and ethnicities who we are called to love with the love of God poured into our hearts by the Spirit.

Filed under: Compassion, Justice, Mercy, SocietyTagged with: ,

Grief, Healing, and Action

Many of us are grieving the reelection of Donald Trump to the office of president of the United States of America. We have seen his cruelty. We remember his separating children from their parents at the border. We have seen how he demeans and taunts others. We have seen his racism, sexism, and xenophobia. We have seen how he hooks into people’s fears, grievances, and prejudices. He manipulates and abuses human weakness for his own purposes.

So we grieve. We grieve the state of our union, our relationships to one another, our divisions.

Joe Biden has often said “That is not who we are,” when speaking of the kinds of actions and attitudes expressed by Trump. And yet the extent of our embrace of Trump makes him a mirror that reflects us as a nation. He certainly is not the only mirror, but he is one that reveals something of what is valued and pursued in our nation and how we view one another.

The truth is we are all broken. We need healing. We need deliverance. From anger. From self-absorption. From fear. From grievances. From the way we view and judge one another. We need to be freed from the hooks that a Trump can hook into.

We need to love one another. Those of us who are followers of Jesus have learned from Jesus that we are to serve one another with compassion and to witness to the love that is near and available.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36)

Harassed and helpless describes the human condition. In our helplessness, we need compassionate action in our lives. When we have come to know that compassion, we must share it. We must exercise it.

Compassion does not judge others; it does not write them off. But it does discern. And it does not remain silent. We must speak the truth in love. We must speak to the underlying egotism and self-absorption that alienates us from one another, alienates us from knowing or caring about what others are going through, confines us to our own felt needs and agendas and views of the world. Alienates us from Love. We must speak deliverance.

And then the compassion we experience must continue to move us outward in doing justice. When, for example, Trump starts rounding up millions of undocumented people, putting them into internment camps, separating them from spouses and children, in order to process them out of the country, we must stand in the way. We must speak out. We must call others to give witness to the injustice and work to make right what is wrong. Rather than add to the darkness, we must be light in our society.

Filed under: Compassion, Healing, Love, Serving, Society, WitnessTagged with: ,

Obama On Unity, Division, and Politics

All across America, in big cities and small towns, away from all the noise, the ties that bind us together are still there. We still coach Little League and look out for our elderly neighbors. We still feed the hungry, in churches and mosques and synagogues, and share the same pride when our Olympic athletes compete for the gold. (Barack Obama)

In his address to the Democratic National Convention, Obama points beyond our political divisions to aspects of our humanity that bind us together. He calls us to embrace our common humanity and reach out to each other beyond the fault lines of our politics. From our common ground, we must listen to each other for the concerns and needs that are beneath our various political positions.

He also shares what he sees as some of the causes of our divisions:

We live in a time of such confusion and rancor, with a culture that puts a premium on things that don’t last – money, fame, status, likes. We chase the approval of strangers on our phones; we build all manner of walls and fences around ourselves and then wonder why we feel so alone. We don’t trust each other as much because we don’t take the time to know each other – and in that space between us, politicians and algorithms teach us to caricature each other and troll each other and fear each other.

Obama calls us to go beneath our politics to the underlying causes of division. He names money, fame, status, approval. He implies that we put a premium on protecting ourselves from one another. From a spiritual viewpoint, he is naming pursuits that we have made central to our identity and that put us in competition with or in fear of others. We therefore tend to isolate ourselves. We “don’t take the time to know each other” or trust each other. We are ripe for manipulation from “politicians and algorithms.”

Again, from a spiritual viewpoint, our pursuits have left out love for one another. We have lost our true center in Love. Our divisiveness and our inhumanity toward others is rooted in the loss of empathy and compassion.

With love, we are able to enter into the lives of others and be open and welcoming of others whose cultures, histories, and views may differ from ours. Love is not put off by differences. Nor does it seek superiority over others or pride of place. Rather, it makes us available to others.

Jesus spoke of love in radical terms when he said, “Love your neighbor as yourself” which requires us to put ourselves in the place of our neighbor, which further requires us to listen to our neighbor. It does not necessitate agreement, but it does mean we do not write off another person. Love transforms us and others—if we let it.

When it comes to leadership in our nation, we need persons who have empathy and compassion toward others without which we will only have further divisions. Those who show compassion are those who are aware of their own brokenness, who are no longer running from their own pain or providing a cover for their own insecurity.

A man who is unable to acknowledge weakness and vulnerability is dangerous in a position of leadership. If he has a practice of denying his own weakness, he will manipulate the weaknesses of others. A man who says he never asks for forgiveness has little basis for a true relationship with others. A man, who carries past hurts and grievances and lashes out, bullying and belittling others, needs healing. He does not need to be put in a position of leadership.

Donald Trump, as president, is dangerous not only for our nation but for the world, and especially for those who have been marginalized. If we know this, and as the election approaches, we must share our views of leadership with one another. Where love is the foundation of our relationships, we are able to do this without ridicule or putting down others. Love makes it possible to share from the deeper reality of our common humanity and from our most basic needs and concerns as human beings living in community.

If we have come to know love as the basis of our relationships, we must share the truth we know and do so in love for others and for our nation.

Filed under: Compassion, Humanity, LoveTagged with: , ,

Who Are Our Enemies?

There is this tendency to identify the bad guys with the assumption that we are the good guys: If we (the good guys) only got rid of all the problem people, all the vermin, things would be so much better. If we simply excluded or neutralized certain kinds of people, maybe whole categories of people, the ones we view as threats, who are the enemies of our communities and our nation, then things would be made right.

Running for president a second time is a man who makes a pledge: “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections.”

He tells us that there are people who are “poisoning the blood of our country, it’s so bad and people are coming in with disease, people are coming in with every possible thing that you can have.” “Nobody has any idea where these people are coming from, and we know they come from prisons, we know they come from mental institutions, insane asylums, we know they’re terrorists.”

It has been noted that this kind of rhetoric has similarities to the language that Hitler used to enthrall the crowds that came out to hear him.

Donald Trump is often accused of creating divisions in our nation, when he is mostly stoking the divisions that are already there. The fear of others, the experience of threat from this or that group of people, the identification of our major problems as being outside of ourselves (those others) rather than within, sets us up for manipulation. Trump simply hooks into our tendency to ignore our own sin and make the place of evil external. The truth, as Paul tells us, is that “we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are all a problem. We are all in need of spiritual transformation.

We have this tendency to see the problem as being mainly out there in “those people.” Exclude them or get rid of them and things will be okay. This tendency runs deep; it can be tapped into and is tapped into by wannabe authoritarians who need us to have an enemy they can promise to vanquish.

Jesus speaks to this tendency to see the problem mostly outside ourselves: “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye?” He makes it clear that until we take the log out of our own eye we are in no condition to help our neighbor, to see the speck in order to take it out of their eye.

When we operate with this kind of blindness and “have religion,” we are particularly dangerous. We are the good ones. We have God on our side. We are the ones who know where the problem comes from and what must be done.

It was religious leaders that handed Jesus over to Pilate to be crucified. When given the opportunity to choose the release of either Barabbas, an insurrectionist, or Jesus, they chose the insurrectionist.

When we remain unaware of the depth of our broken condition and project our disorder on others, blaming others for the very things we are guilty of, blaming them for the state of our nation, then we may seek judgment upon them. We gravitate to a leader who will put them in their place. And then, whatever afflictions they experience, we deem those afflictions as something they deserve.

The divisions we maintain with these attitudes run deep. They are ideological, cultural, ethnic, religious, and political. The attitudes that support these divisions are moralistic, judgmental, hardhearted, resentful, merciless, oppressive, and unloving.

The truth is we are all related, children of God, made in God’s image. We are all siblings of the same humanity whatever the differences of culture, ethnicity, religion, and vocation. And we are all broken. And the decisions we make affect others, all children of the same Creator. Therefore, St. Paul writes, “Let each of you look not to your own concerns but to the concerns of others.”

We must stop listening to someone in a position of power or desiring power badmouth our siblings. We must listen to our siblings, far and near, living under different circumstances from ours, facing difficulties, some of which, as with us, are of their own making and some of the making of others. Some experience societal forces pushing them to the margins. Others experience forces that ease them toward the center.

Whoever and wherever they are, we must seek to understand what others are going through, what forces affect their lives and their relationships. Get to know their needs. Get to know them. Have them on our minds, in our prayers. When a so-called leader tells us who threatens us, who we must be afraid of, who must be eradicated, we must refuse to listen. He or she is talking about our siblings. Even if there is someone who makes themselves our enemy, Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for them.

When we make decisions that will affect others (when we vote, for example), “let each of us look not to our own concerns but to the concerns of others.” Therefore, get to know the experiences and concerns of others. Hold them in our hearts so that, rather than trample over them, we respond to their concerns.

“Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go, Lord, if you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart.”

Filed under: Compassion, Fear, Grace, Humanity, Mercy, SocietyTagged with: , , ,

Jesus and Trans Persons

There has been a plethora of legislation crafted, or in the process of being crafted, by state legislatures across the country, that affects transgender persons and the people who love them. Generally, these laws being considered or already passed affect transgender children, their parents, doctors, and educators. They tend to make life more difficult for those directly affected. They further marginalize those already marginalized in our society.

There are many situations that do not need laws. There are many decisions that need to be left to those who are most affected—who live close to the issues. And there is this reality, also: There are many attitudes present in our society that will support oppressive laws.

Not all societies marginalize trans persons as ours has. There have been societies that have had very different attitudes toward transgender persons than our society. As I understand it, indigenous peoples of the Americas have historically simply recognized the gifts and special place of trans persons in their communities. Their recognition provides an alternative.

Laws motivated by fear, discomfort, and prejudice will end up being oppressive; they will further “disinherit” and put “people’s backs to the wall” (Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited). This is particularly true when politicians, concerned with maintaining power, tap into the fears and prejudices of others in order to gain standing for their next election.

As a follower of Jesus, I tend to ask, “What would Jesus do?” Where is Jesus on this matter of laws that further marginalize people? What do we learn from his life and teaching?

What is clear about Jesus is that he spent his time with the marginalized and outcasts—with the poor, the beggar along the road; the sick, the blind, the deaf, and the lame; with lepers who lived outside the community; with those experiencing mental breakdown. He spent time with those in need, the brokenhearted, and those who were bound. He brought healing and deliverance.

When he was invited to a religious leader’s house and noticed the kind of people who were invited, he said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind (Luke 14:12).” It is clear where Jesus’ heart was.

When a woman was about to be stoned for adultery in accordance with the law, Jesus did not join the religious leaders (all men) forming a circle around her. He joined the woman.

Jesus’ harshest words came against those with social standing who set themselves over others. Many are familiar with the beatitudes or blessings of Jesus, but not so familiar with Jesus’ “woes”:

“Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep (Luke 6:24-25).”

These words speak to those who have “made it” in society, who have position and influence, and who may also have leadership roles that directly affect the lives of others. Jesus calls all to turn from positioning themselves over others and oppressing others.

He calls his followers to lives of compassion and serving others. He calls us to enter into the lives of others. No more making decisions about others from a distance, decisions that continue to marginalize.

Do not further marginalize. Do not add to people’s experiences of being bullied. Enter, with compassion, into the lives of parents who are raising a child who experiences their gender as opposite to their biological sex. Listen to parents who demonstrate loving acceptance of their child and their child’s experience of themselves. Support them, and encourage teachers who are trying to provide a loving, welcoming space in their classrooms and schools.

Jesus is with the trans child and the trans adult. He comes to them with compassion and acceptance. Like every one of us, trans individuals must make their own decisions about their lives, take the steps they see to take. They will seek guidance from those who love them. They may seek God’s guidance as well.

At the heart of it all is this: we are to love others. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love is open to the other person’s experience. Love listens.

Legislators, if you are not listening to trans persons or the parents of trans children, do not craft laws for them. Do not further burden them with your fear, discomfort, prejudice, or that of your constituents.

What is required of you as a human being is to “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).” Justice does not add to the wrongs but makes right what is wrong. Mercy sees the burdens others are carrying and does not add to the burdens but lifts them. Therefore, walk humbly, listen, and be open to the experience of those who are being marginalized. They are in a better position to speak of their needs than those operating from fear, discomfort, and prejudice, or from a desire to maintain power.

Filed under: Compassion, Humanity, Justice, MercyTagged with: , ,

Light In The Darkness

I have previously written about “The Coming Collapse” and the sowing of injustice that operates like a parasite eating its host. It reaps the death it sows.

The words from Psalm 10 express this reality: “In arrogance, the wicked persecute the poor—let them be caught in the schemes they have devised.” They are caught in what they have devised! They reap what they sow and do not see it coming. But how much will evil destroy before there is nothing left to destroy? In the face of evil, love must act, doing the work of justice and mercy.

It does not matter how we think about what we are sowing, the seeds we sow will determine what is produced. We can put a religious facade over our actions and deceive ourselves about our oppressive ways, but the outcome will reveal what we have sown. We reap what we sow, and we know the activity of both love and evil by their fruits. The one will produce justice, mercy, and life, the other oppression and death.

The prophets of the Hebrew scriptures often proclaimed a “word of the Lord” directed to what is being sown—to the evil sown—and what is about to be reaped. The reaping is seen as God’s judgment, but that judgment is also inherent to human actions. If we act against our true selves, as beings created in the image of God, we experience God’s judgment as the judgment of our false selves, our phantom selves that are being wasted away by evil.

It is possible to think of human history in this way—and our present time. Frederick Douglass recognized the destruction that slavery brought not only to those enslaved but to slave owners. Abraham Lincoln viewed the Civil War, which brought a greater loss of life than all other American wars combined, as the judgment of God inherent to the evil of slavery.

In our own time, we see democracy—which our nation has made so much of, whatever its form—being eaten away from within. A growing number of people would prefer autocracy if it were their autocracy, their hold over government, in order to maintain or achieve their positions over others. Many are afraid of equality in a multi-cultural nation. They are afraid of the voices they have sought to silence. In their actions, they end up silencing love and justice. They sow oppression and reap destruction, theirs and their nation’s.

With evil sown comes much hurt and breakdown and injustice. What we hear over and over again in the Hebrew prophets, the Psalms, and the New Testament is that God is with the broken: the poor, the needy, the outcasts, the imprisoned, those who are oppressed. God is their comforter, protector, and deliverer. If we want to be where God is, be with those experiencing oppression. Sit with those who hurt (It makes no difference, their class, ethnicity, gender identity, political party or any other way they may identify themselves). Be with those our former president called “losers.”

And also call out those who are oppressing others so that they may be warned of the coming judgment (the reaping) and turn back to their true humanity made in the image of God. Call them back to the love of God so that they may receive mercy and be changed. And then each of us must keep turning to God so that, in the words of the old Shaker hymn, “by turning, turning we come ’round right.”

God calls forth those who will be light in a world of oppression, who will do justice, love mercy, and operate with compassion. Such people may or may not have a set of “religious beliefs” but they will have the experience of real compassion which literally means to “suffer with” and which always comes from the God who is Love—as does all that is expressive of our true humanity, all that is real. Those who act with compassion will be witnesses to a humanity made in the image of God and will be light in the darkness.

Filed under: Compassion, Evil, Humanity, Justice, Racism, Suffering, WitnessTagged with: , ,