How do we Christians represent Jesus to the world? Wednesday night I had the misfortune of seeing Fox's "Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy" in a doctor's waiting room. I only caught the end, where a psychotic woman came home, didn't say one word of greeting to the family she'd been without for two weeks, and screamed and ranted nearly incoherantly about the "terrors" she had experienced at the other home, which she claimed was full of "dark-sided" people. She was insane. She was ordering the cameramen to "get the hell out of here... in Jesus' name!" She was saying stuff like, "Anyone here who loves Jesus can stay, but if you're dark-sided, get out!" It was like nothing I'd ever seen. I can't describe it adequately. Did anyone catch this? I was mortified. I was in the waiting room with three others who were just mocking her, and I thought, "And I'm supposed to share Jesus with them?"
And today our dear friend Pat Robertson is at it again. Remember last summer, when he called for the assasination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez? Well, now he's saying that Dover, Pennsylvania should watch out. School board members who wanted to introduce the concept of intelligent design in the classroom were voted out of their seats on Tuesday. On The 700 Club, Robertson said, "I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God. You just rejected him from your city. And don’t wonder why he hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for his help because he might not be there."
Oh Pat, where is the mercy and grace of our God? Is it just me, or does scripture teach us that it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance?
I'm not sure if Bill O'Reilly has ever claimed to be a Christian, but a lot of Christians claim him, and he's basically saying that it's OK for terrorists to target San Francisco. He's not happy that the citizens of San Francisco voted Tuesday to oppose the presence of military recruiters in city schools and to ban handguns, so he says if HE were the president, he'd march right down into the middle of Union Square and announce, "Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead. And if al-Qaida comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."
Yes, there are a lot of sinners sinning openly in San Francisco. But God loves every one of them, and He hasn't written off our beautiful city yet. I live about 30 minutes south of San Francisco, and I love it.
Sometimes it just seems like there's so much ugliness in right-wing circles. I don't mind their opinions, but I can't stand the mean-spiritedness.