September 23, 2024

                                    Be the Light

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:43-45a

How do you respond to hatred? How do you react to bigotry? How do you combat lies engineered to fuel unrest?

Haitian migrants have moved to our community. No one seems to know exactly how many but the numbers are small. They’ve been here for about 10 months. And now certain people have decided to use the migrants as a political agenda based on hate.

The migrants haven’t caused trouble. They haven’t “drained” our resources. For example, one elementary school in our town has ONE Haitian child. They are working people who are trying to build a new life.

This has caused some people to react in anger. Their hostility mirrors the hate they are attacking. Their loud voices will not change the opinions or hearts of those who attack people they don’t even know. It will just create an escalation that does no one any good.

It came up before and after church yesterday. While some were focused on what we can do to help integrate the Haitian migrants into our community, others were more focused on lashing out at those who have unfairly attacked the migrants.

I am all about freedom of speech and freedom to express your opinion. I am an editorial columnist after all. But there is a way to make your point without inflaming an already bad situation.

Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.

I would go a step further and say that hatred begets hatred.

How much more powerful to simply love on the people who are now facing such vocal cruelty? How much better to SHOW how to live a life of faith than to try and argue with people who are filled with hate?

I know. Many of the people who are behaving so ugly are also people who are in church most Sundays. But do we allow them to drag us down or do we, by our own behavior, lift them up?

Jesus told us to love our enemies. He went on to ask what it will accomplish to love those who are good to us? The power, if you will, comes from loving people who aren’t behaving in a loving manner.

We are to be the light. It’s in the Bible. Read it for yourself. Let go of the darkness and pray for those who would do harm. God can do anything if His people will only seek from the depths of their hearts.

September 21, 2024

                 Don’t Excuse Lies

There are six things the LORD hates,

seven that are detestable to him:

haughty eyes,

a lying tongue,

hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked schemes,

feet that are quick to rush into evil,

a false witness who pours out lies

and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

– Proverbs 6:16-19

Does a lie ever justify itself? Is it okay to excuse a person for lying when he explains its purpose? Is it okay to stir up strife to further your own agenda?

A candidate running for vice president of our country now admits he lied about Haitian migrants eating people’s pets. He explained that he just wanted to draw attention to the migrants who are being located into different communities in our country.

JD Vance has done great harm with his repeated lies. Springfield, Ohio, has dealt with bomb threats against their schools. The tension and fear torments residents, including the Haitian migrants who are here legally. They have sought refuge in our country because of the violence in Haiti. Now this?

The ripple from Vance’s lie, which Trump has also told, has spread to other towns. This week a meeting over the Haitian migrants in my own town packed a local church. A church? The media wasn’t allowed in. I didn’t attend.

The police chief did speak to a reporter. He said the migrants haven’t caused any trouble beyond normal percentages throughout the community. (All groups – white, black, hispanic, etc. cause some trouble from time to time.) The Haitians seem to be hard-working people who simply want to build a life here.

Hatred and fear born of a lie. We’re so afraid of taxing our resources by people who “shouldn’t be here.” Have we forgotten that God can multiply anything that we give to Him so that we have more than enough?

It’s appalling to me that a church would host such an event. I am furious that political candidates would continue to stir up hatred and fear to further their own political ambitions. And I am more than disappointed that Christians fall into the mob mentality and blindly follow and excuse evil.

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

– 1 John 4:20-21

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

– John 13:34-35

Are you stirring up hatred or are you reaching out to others in love? Don’t claim to follow Jesus and demand that people made in God’s image be removed from your community. That’s not love. That’s not what Jesus would do.