Jesus Weeps

Note:  This particular blog entry pulls no punches.  Some recent news stories struck a nerve with me and this is one of the few issues on which I believe there is no legitimate “other side.”

Forget “Jesus wept.”  There is nothing past tense about the tears of Christ when it comes to the actions of some who claim faith in him as their excuse for wildly anti-Christian behavior.  Jesus weeps!

The latest outrage by the “Christian” hate group Focus on the Family is their nationwide assault on anti-bullying laws.  Over the last few years many states have, in the wake of a rash of teen suicides, begun treating bullying as what it is; a crime.  Laws, some very good and some in need of tweaking, have been enacted across the country to protect children and teens from the sort of bullying that goes beyond schoolyard pettiness. 

Now to be sure we are not talking here about normal childhood antics.   Always picking the smallest weakest kid last for the kick-ball team may not be nice but it is not what the anti-bullying statues are meant to cover.  These laws seek to address the persistent degrading of a peer in school or, as is becoming more common, on Facebook or other social media.  In one widely publicized case, a young teen girl was bullied about her weight on a social media site to the point that she could see no way to go on.  She took her own life.  Another young man who had bravely acknowledged his own sexual orientation to his family was hazed by peers and ignored by teachers and administrators to the point that he saw no recourse other than taking his own life.

Focus on the Family has taken up the cause of defending bullies in the name of religious freedom and, more specifically, in the name of Christ.  Their logic goes like this.  Homosexuality is wrong.  As “Christians” we are called to reject our GLBTQ peers, neighbors and family unless and until they “repent.”  To prohibit teenagers from treating GLBTQ peers in a demeaning way (screaming “fag” at them, painting pink triangles on their lockers, telling them being gay means you should die, etc.) is akin to prohibiting them of freely practicing their religious faith. Being a good Christian, according to this logic, means bullying children and teens whom you deem less than and is a moral and Christian imperative. In other words, anti-bullying laws stand in the way of faithful discipleship of Jesus Christ.

Like I said, Jesus weeps.

In their defense, these hate groups say that they are neither prejudiced nor intolerant of those unlike themselves.  They claim an ethic of “hate the sin but not the sinner.”  Not only is this not a biblical ideal, it betrays the very intolerance that these groups claim not to embrace. For whatever reason, this is the only “sin” they feel compelled to hate.  And it is protection of their hatred that is at the heart of this anti-anti-bullying movement.

These Christian hate groups are sprouting up across the nation and using the name of the Prince of Peace to promote an agenda that is as far from the gospel as the bottom of the sea is to the far side of the moon.  The gospel, at its heart, rejects the very sort of malignant logic that infects these hate groups.  At no point does Christ proclaim hatred or intolerance of ANYTHING to be a virtue.  A theology that devalues a child of God, especially one as vulnerable as a child or teen, who feels like an outsider already, does violence to the gospel.

Far from what these purveyors of a bastardized gospel would preach, I remain convinced that:

·         Anytime a child of God is belittled or has their humanity trampled upon, Jesus weeps.

·         Anytime a teenager, wonderfully made by God, is told that their life is not worth living, Jesus weeps.

·         Anytime a child of God is made to feel that they live outside the embrace of God’s love, Jesus weeps.

·         Anytime a community allows a child to be literally bullied to death, Jesus weeps.

·         Anytime the gospel is used to promote an agenda of hate, exclusion or, yes, bullying, Jesus weeps.

More and more anti-bullying laws are coming under attack by “Christian” hate groups and too many politicians, more concerned with preserving their seat of power than using that power for the public good, are caving to the demands of these hate mongers. 

We who understand the gospel of Jesus Christ as hope and not fear; love and not hate; promise and not persecution, must stand up and be counted.  There is no legitimate interpretation of the gospel that demands hate and intolerance.  That is not now nor has it ever been the message of Christ.

In this Holy Week, we are reminded that in our silence we are not free from guilt.

As long as we allow the gospel to be hijacked by these voices of intolerance and hatred, Jesus weeps.