God is Love

When it comes to Christianity one of the most overlooked points is that God is love, and that love should guide everything we do. We forget that love supersedes everything, even faith and hope, and that when people look for followers of Christ, they will recognize them because of the love they have for others. Yet when you ask people to describe Christians, especially in the United States, you won’t get that description. You’ll hear they are hateful, bigoted, anti-gay, conservative, or something else.

But love rarely enters their minds.

Sadly, this is nothing new. If we look at history the institution of the church has often been on the side of oppression and hate. Christians led the inquisition in Spain. Christians stole people from their African homes to enslave them. Christian pastors preached selective passages to keep slaves obedient. Christians labeled the indigenous of the Americas as “savages” and led a genocidal campaign against them. Christians by and large remained silent in the face of Nazi genocide. Yes there were followers and movements against these evils, but they were the minority.

We Christians have a horrible track record, and we aren’t getting any better. Over the past few years we’ve seen Evangelical Christians support policies of hate, violence, and bigotry. Christians support stringent asylum policies that leave people vulnerable to kidnapping, extortion, rape, and murder. White evangelicals are more likely to support violent policing that leaves black and brown communities oppressed and fearful. It’s Christians of all stripes that are likely to spew vitriol and hate towards members of the LGBTQ community, when all they want is the right to love whom they want. In spite of the fact that Jesus said nothing about homosexuality. In spite of the fact that the word we translate as “homosexual” in the Bible doesn’t really mean that.

Meanwhile. God.is.love.

They will know we are followers of Christ by the way we love one another.

So I have to ask the question, then. Where are the followers of the way? Because the church has become way too focused on beliefs rather than virtue. People in the church would much rather you pray a prescribed prayer, or say you believe in this or that doctrine, or say that you oppose X, Y, or Z, than to have you walk into the messy, complicated, and imprecise world of love.

Meanwhile the biblical witness focuses much more on virtue, on action. They will know you are Christians by your love, Jesus will recognizes his followers not because they believed the right things about him, but because they welcomed the stranger, gave food and water to the hungry, and clothes to the naked.

You know where I find those qualities? Are they among some churchgoers? Sure. But I also see it in the LGBT community where everyone is welcome to come as they are. I see it in the impoverished communities that are always willing to share a meal, no matter how small. I see it among asylum seekers who will welcome anyone to their table because they too know what it’s like to be rejected.

I see Christ where I see love, and I hope that is where you will find me, also.