Matthew 22:34-40
In his book, When Christians Get It Wrong, Adam Hamilton wrote, When I ask non-Christians what they think Jesus stood for, most say, ‘Love.’ And they are correct; this is one of the defining elements of Jesus’ teaching. He told his followers that God’s will for humanity could be summarized with two commands: love God and love your neighbor. He went on to say that our neighbor is anyone who needs our help. The love we are to show is not a feeling but a way of acting – a love of kindness and compassion and a desire to bless and seek good for others. Jesus told his disciples they were to love not only their neighbors and friends but their enemies as well. He told them that the world would know that they are disciples by their love.
Unfortunately, I haven’t seen that kind of love being practiced very much in our country lately. From the vicious political attack ads on TV to the nasty posts on Facebook, people seem more likely to vent their hostility on each other than their love. There are serious, deep divides between people that seem to be only getting worse. We are divided racially, and even though this year has seen an awakening on the part of some white Americans to the issues of white privilege and racial discrimination, there are also white supremacy groups that have come to the forefront of American life. We are divided politically between Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal. Not only have those elected officials on Capitol Hill stopped talking to anyone of the opposite party, but average Americans have stopped talking to friends and relatives who support a different candidate for president than they do. And we are divided – still – on the issue of gay rights, particularly same-sex marriage. While Pope Francis just announced a change in policy for the Roman Catholic Church in affirming civil unions for homosexual couples, the reaction from American evangelicals has been swift, as Franklin Graham has apparently posted highly emotional comments about it and Facebook was filled with suggestions that while the pope could change, the Word of God will never change.
Part of the problem – one factor that has fostered this spirit of division – has been what Bill Bishop, in his book The Big Sort, calls self-segregation into communities of like-mindedness. Americans have chosen to associate only with people who are just like themselves, in terms of zip code and in terms of what media they pay attention to. People do not talk civilly to anyone who disagrees with them. And that seems to me to be a posture of unwillingness to even try to practice Christian love. After all, our neighbors include people who have different perspectives and opinions from our own. We should be, at the least, having conversations with people who have different points of view. As Madeleine Albright wrote in her book, Madame Secretary, Instead of conspiring to be with the like-minded, we need to spend more time learning from those we consider wrong-headed.
So how do we respond to these divisions with love? What can we do to practice the greatest commands in a nation that is so incredibly torn apart? Let’s look at each issue separately.
First, what about the divisiveness that we see in the political realm? A parishioner in Adam Hamilton’s church sent him an email in which he stated, We have a number of close friends who are passionate about their politics. They regularly profess their strong Christian commitment, but somehow have a blind spot when it comes to how they react to views and opinions of those with whom they differ … When we get close to that political arena, I have trouble sensing any Christian love or tolerance of any perspective but their own.
Adam Hamilton comments, But it is deeper than attitude and opinions. Some Christians, in the name of God, say and do things in the realm of politics that are the antithesis of the gospel: slander, gossip, malicious talk, mean-spirited rhetoric, disrespect, and worse. This has been particularly true when it comes to spreading rumors and half-truths using the Internet. I am disappointed at how often Christians I know forward slanderous emails to everyone on their email list without taking the time to verify the claims of the message. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, you have a moral and spiritual responsibility not to slander or send out inflammatory emails about the opposing party or its candidate. Jim Wallis would agree with that assessment, and he adds critique of the media: Our media, especially our cable television and talk radio shows, have helped create a poisonous political environment ruled by falsehood and blatant political bias, often using the language of hate and fear. Americans … are not turning to journalistic sources to inform and challenge them but rather to programs that will enforce and intensify their existing prejudice.
The divisiveness is particularly obvious and harmful among our elected officials. Wallis writes in his book, On God’s Side, Winning has replaced governing, and ideological warfare substitutes for finding solutions to real and growing problems. To disagree isn’t enough anymore – politicians and media pundits now attack their opponent’s character, integrity, patriotism, and even faith. And the political idea of finding compromise or working across party lines has mostly been upended on Capitol Hill, where members of different parties don’t … even say hello or make eye contact in the hallways.
So what is the solution to this dividedness? How do we practice love for our neighbors in the realm of politics? We need to return to the priority of working for the common good. The early church father Chrysostom, who lived in the late 4th century, said, This is the rule of most perfect Christianity, its most exact definition, its highest point, namely, the seeking of the common good … for nothing can so make a person an imitator of Christ as caring for his neighbor. We do that when we choose to look for the good in the other person, when we ask what our neighbor thinks and really listen to the answer. We rise above political ideology and lead on moral grounds. As Jim Wallis puts it, Don’t go right; don’t go left. Go deeper. We learn to appreciate what each side brings to the table. From conservatives, we can see the value of personal responsibility: choices and decisions about individual moral behavior, personal relationships, work ethics, fiscal integrity, service, compassion, and security. From those of the liberal philosophy, we can appreciate the value of social responsibility: a commitment to neighbor, economic fairness, racial and gender equality, social justice, public accountability for business, and cooperative international relationships. We need both personal responsibility and social responsibility. We need each other.
What can we do on a personal level about the political divisiveness in our country? We can learn how to talk to each other without shouting and arguing, how to listen with an open mind to what the other person might have to teach us. We can stop making assumptions about people based on their political affiliation and lumping people together in broad categories. And we can stop passing on the nasty posts on Facebook that resort to name-calling, sarcasm and disrespect.
The second area in which we have serious division is racial. Our nation has become aware in new ways of the deep racial prejudice and discrimination that exist at all levels of our society. After the deaths of many unarmed black men and women, particularly the suffocation of George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer, Americans have taken a new look at where we are in terms of racial equality and equal justice under the law, and seen that we still have a long way to go.
It is very hard for me, as a white woman, to fully understand the experience of a black woman or man. In her book, So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo writes, I have never been able to escape the fact that I am a black woman in a white supremacist country. My blackness is woven into how I dress each morning, what bars I feel comfortable going into, what music I enjoy, what neighborhoods I hang out in. The realities of race have not always been welcome in my life, but they have always been there … [It was] the snide remarks about my hair and lips and the teen idols that would never ever find a girl like me beautiful. Then it was the clerks who would follow me around stores and the jobs that were hiring until I walked in the door and then they were not. And it was the bosses who told me that I was too ‘loud,’ the complaints that my hair was too ‘ethnic’ for the office, and why … I was making so much less money than other white employees doing the same job. It is the cops I can’t make eye contact with, the Ubers that abandon their pickup, driving on instead of stopping when they see me.
In addition to these kinds of discrimination, there are the more troubling and even dangerous ways that racism expresses itself. I cannot forget the events in Charlottesville, Virginia a few years ago, when white supremacist groups marched around carrying assault rifles and Nazi flags, and someone ran over a counter-protester with his car. And a couple in my church in Warwick, RI was guilty of what is called “driving while black.” When they were coming out of Newport one night, after having gone down to a favorite restaurant for dinner, they were pulled over by a white police officer. They were given no reason for being stopped at first. Then the officer said that he appeared to be weaving back and forth in the lane. Finally, he let them leave. But they are sure they were only pulled over because they were black, driving a nice car in a wealthy white community.
So how do we confront the racial divide in our country? First, we have to get to know each other across racial lines. We need to have conversations with each other, honest conversations about what it means to be black in this country, about what it means to benefit from white privilege. And even though those conversations will be difficult at first, they will get easier over time. And then there are things we can do beyond just talking. We can put our love for our neighbors who are people of color into practice by voting in local elections and making racial justice a priority; by getting involved in our schools, understanding the racial achievement gap, and asking whether history being taught includes the history of black Americans; by bearing witness when you see a person of color being harassed; by supporting businesses owned by people of color; by boycotting banks that prey on people of color, selling them bad loans or hiking up interest rates for people of color; by giving money to organizations working for racial justice; by supporting music, film, TV, art, and literature created by people of color; by supporting increases in the minimum wage; by pushing for police reform; and by voting for diverse government representatives. We put our love for neighbor into action in these ways.
Finally, what about the division in our country over homosexuality, especially same-sex marriage? Some people may have thought that the issue had been settled, at least from a civil point of view, by the Supreme Court rulings that made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. But don’t forget, that decision could be reversed by future courts. And the division is still a part of our religious life, with our own denomination still hopelessly divided over the issue. In the General Conference that was to have taken place last May, most people assumed that there would be an official breaking apart of the United Methodist Church.
Adam Hamilton is one person whose views on homosexuality have evolved over the past 30 years. He now supports gay marriage and believes that the church is making a mistake in continuing to hold the view that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Hamilton says that the issue is often framed in terms of biblical authority – that if you see references to same-sex intimacy as culturally bound, then you are rejecting biblical authority. But that’s not the case. The issue isn’t biblical authority; it’s biblical interpretation. And, he writes, Christians have, from the beginning, recognized that certain scriptural commands were no longer binding.
There are only five passages in the Bible that mention same-sex intimacy. Two are in Leviticus, in what is known as the Holiness Code. In that same code there are verses that say that blending fabrics is an abomination and that children who disrespect their parents should be stoned to death. But those verses are set aside, while the verses on same-sex relations are held onto by some Christians. The passage says that if a man lies with another man as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination and they should be put to death. Very few, if any, Christians would advocate killing gay and lesbian people, so they are already setting aside part of the verse. Romans 1:26-27 talks about men with men and women with women as being abnormal and unnatural. And to Paul, it seemed wrong. In his culture what he saw as expressions of homosexuality we would also say were wrong, because they included older men taking young men as lovers, and the use of male and female temple prostitutes. Paul had no concept of sexual orientation, or the idea that a man being with another man or a woman being with another woman would be normal and natural for a homosexual person. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 refers to male prostitutes. And 1 Timothy 1:9-10 echoes the Leviticus passage.
There is no place in the gospels where Jesus says anything about homosexuality. And there is no understanding anywhere in the Bible of a same-sex couple sharing their lives in a covenantal relationship. In scripture, what is discussed is homosexual activity on the part of those who were assumed to be heterosexual. That thinking was shaped by cultural norms, and the theological and social presuppositions of the Biblical writers.
Instead of condemning people for their sexual orientation, which I believe a person is born with, Christians should reach out to gays and lesbians with compassion and kindness, the love we should have for our neighbor, the love that God has for all his children. Too often, the church has been so judgmental and anti-gay that gay Christians have not felt comfortable even going to church. They have, for good reason, felt ostracized and unwanted. But imagine what might happen if churches and their members expressed love to the LGBT community.
Adam Hamilton received an email from someone he didn’t know. It said, I am a lesbian who has a partner and three children. I have never been to your church. But this email is not about being gay or about the church’s stance on being gay. It is about one of your members whose name is Carol. Carol lives next door to me. She was one of the first neighbors to come and say ‘hello.’ She was warm and inviting and one day she invited us to church … I told her I was gay, and she didn’t raise an eyebrow or frown … I have never valued a church by the number of people in the pews or the amount of money in the offering. What I am moved by is a member so touched by your church that she came into my heart … I have truly been blessed by this woman, and I am hoping to visit your church in the future.
I would like to leave you with this. Bishop Michael Curry, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, has a new book out called, Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times. In it, he writes, Love your neighbor … Love the neighbor you like and love the neighbor you don’t like. Love the neighbor you agree with and love the neighbor you disagree with. Love your Democrat neighbor. Love your Republican neighbor. Love your Independent neighbor. Love your Black neighbor, your White neighbor. Love your Asian neighbor, your Latino neighbor, and your Indigenous neighbor … Love your LGBTQ neighbor, love your Jewish neighbor, love your Muslim neighbor. Love, love, love, love your neighbor as yourself.
