Signs point to love.

I turn on the TV and I see the protesters: angry, yelling, carrying signs. 

LEVITICUS 20:13

THE JEWS KILLED JESUS

GOD HATES FAGS

Click! I quickly flip the channel.

There's a senator on TV, making a speech. He's saying he's happy about the earthquake in Haiti, that he's glad God sent that disaster to punish the Haitans for their "sinful" local customs and beliefs. 

I reach for the remote once again. Click!

They've banned the burqa in France-- click-- violence in Israel and Lebanon--click!--  and Glenn Beck is on the screen, shouting, saying Obama should go back to the Muslim-loving Arab country he was born in and-- click!-- 

I turn off the TV; I can't stand it any more. 

Because the one thing all or most of these people have in common, apart from their inexcusable bigotry, is their professed belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ. 

Maybe I'm wrong about Jesus. Maybe all my years of Sunday school, and all the hymns I've sung, and all the sermons I've listened to (intently or not so much) didn't quite get through. Maybe I'm not interpreting Jesus' message quite right, maybe he DID say somewhere to hate our neighbor because they're a little bit different, maybe the Bible is dripping with some kind of sarcasm I didn't get, but the ONE message I've gotten above all the others out of being a Christian all my life is that God loves you no matter who you are or what you do, and we're supposed to love each other because of that. 

We've all failed at this. Of course we have. We are all human, after all; that's what forgiveness is for. The thing that really bothers me, though, is the people who deliberately preach hate against other human beings in God's name. "Well, God OBVIOUSLY hates these people," they say. They point to people's suffering, to natural disasters, to isolated incidents, as proof that "these people"-- gays, Jews, Muslims, the poor, what have you-- have sinned, somehow, enough to make God stop loving them. But the truth is, that just isn't possible.

Yes, people make mistakes sometimes. And yes, bad things happen sometimes. And I honestly don't really know how to explain either except by saying that life is a messy ordeal and no one knows why. But the answer isn't in blame or hate or fear; it's in love. In the end, love is what God gave us: not answers to everything or absolute perfection or a reason to point fingers at people and shout that we're right, but love. And the point of Christianity-- the point, I think, of any life well-lived regardless of your particular religious creed-- is to share that love with people, whether in the form of the missionary who goes to Guatemala with food and Bibles and free dental exams, or the school full of kids donating toys and socks and blankets so that some poorer kids can have a nice Christmas, or even just in that one friend who seeks you out on your worst days and asks you what's wrong and just listens. Because for those of you asking yourself, that, not yelling or blaming or carrying angry signs, is what Jesus would have done. 

I turn on the TV again, and there are the signs. Except I'm not angry anymore, just sad. I want to make signs of my own:

JOHN 3:16

JESUS WAS A JEW, THEY'RE PRETTY OKAY

GOD LOVES FAGS EVERYONE

GOD LOVES YOU

--Patti

Bible verses mentioned:

"If a man lie with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them." (Leviticus 20:13)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)