Charlottesville is a tragedy. I couldn’t care less about your opinion on who is to blame. Some want to blame Trump or the neo-Nazis or BLM or other anti-Nazi protesters. I get it. I’m frustrated that it took so much time and pressure for Trump to speak up. I am sick and tired of the racial discord. I wish we lived in a world where the word “Nazi” only existed in history books. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. The bottom line is this: the man who drove his car into a crowd, killed 32 year old Heather Heyer, and injured 19 others is responsible for this tragedy. The entire weight of the blame should be squarely on his shoulders.
He is to blame, but that isn’t the end of the conversation.
If we are being honest with ourselves, it is obvious that the hate speech, racism, and ultra-nationalism touted by so many on the far right are only fanning the flames of division in this country. It breaks my heart to see so many of my conservative friends and family take up the refrain.
Conservatives cannot let hate become the new platform of the right. To my conservative friends: It’s time to start taking the high road again and take back your movement from the clutches of hate, racism, and ultra-nationalism.
Please stop the name calling. If you want to talk politics, read up on policy. Calling someone names because they vote, dress, worship, look, or think different than you is not politics. It’s ignorance and it needs to stop. Especially in the church.
Stop defending racists just because you disagree with the person they are fighting against. The enemy of my enemy is not my friend. He is my neighbor and so is my enemy. Get where I’m going with this? Jesus said that it isn’t good enough to just love your “neighbor”, but that we must also love our enemy (Matthew 5:43-44). What he is telling us is that even our enemy is our neighbor. That means someone with a different political opinion is our neighbor. Someone with a different race, religion, or ethnicity is also our neighbor.
There are few things more frustrating than discussing politics with someone who cannot tell you what they believe on an issue, only how wrong the other side is. Don’t be that guy. Don’t let your disagreement over political issues turn to hate. Don’t become a racist because you hate what the BLM guy on TV is saying about the police. Judging an entire group by the words or actions of one member always leads to hatred. I have “Christian” friends who are cheering on the guy who runs into the crowd with murder in his heart with the reasoning that “it’s their own fault for not getting out of the street”. What exactly is Christlike about that?!
The hateful rhetoric in public discourse is causing tensions to boil over. The world is full of darkness. I understand that, but the church should be a beacon of hope and light. There is no room for racism or any anti-anyone rhetoric in the church. Never in my life have I heard so much ignorant, racist, anti-everybody-different speech from my “Christian” friends and family as I have in the past year.
This is not to say that everyone in my friends and family circle is a racist. I generally try not to surround myself with those types of people. There are several, however, who are so adamantly against the liberal movement that they become de facto white nationalists. It really has little to do with ideals of white supremacy, but a feeling that they are being silenced by political correctness.
Speaking of political correctness… Liberals cannot continue to bully conservatives into silence. We should ALL have the right and freedom to express our opinions, even when we are wrong. Also, we should not be surprised, offended, or angry when someone else does. Freedom for all or freedom for none.
We are all part of the human race. We need to love one another, regardless of any other variable.
This is why I am taking a stand against the rising tide of an anti-Christ spirit that I see in my conservative AND liberal friends. I do not find my identity in my race, ethnicity, nationality, denomination, political affiliation, or even my flag. I find my identity in Christ and I hope to show a Christlike love to everyone I meet.
I believe and live by the words of Paul in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
My race is human. My identity is in Christ. My kingdom is not of this world. My allegiance is to God & my fellow man.
#stopthehate #lovewins #charlottesville #myraceishuman
