In the last couple of weeks, I have contacted leaders of the Jewish community and the Muslim community in my area and was so glad to hear that others had done the same. In the years that I have been serving in this part of Pennsylvania, a lot of mayhem and violence has been perpetrated against people of faith, including Christians. These hate crimes are based on religious bias and ideological extremism, and there seems to be no end to them in sight. I don’t think the cause of this is secularism or atheism – I think the cause is a deepening of hateful teaching in fringe groups – political and religious – around the country. People – mostly young men – are hearing messages of despair and anger and fear, and they are acting out on them. And there’s usually someone who knows about the assailant’s intent and says nothing about it. In fact, I was surprised to hear that the mother of one of the terrorists who attacked the mosque in San Diego tried desperately to inform the police. Her pain must be unimaginable.
It is hard to know what we can do about this. Of course, if we know someone is heading towards that kind of action, we should call 911 and have them treated for their worsening mental illness. If a politician is using hate-speech, we should speak against them, like this psychopathic antisemite Maureen Galindo in San Antonio, Texas, or Graham Platner in Maine – he has a Nazi tattoo – or Pete Hegseth, who attends a church that preaches taking the vote away from women and approves of slavery. People prone to behaving in violent, destructive ways are usually moved by words of hatred, like the terrorists who attacked the Capitol Building. Words matter, so we need to be careful how we use them. Words can produce acts of love and generosity, and words can lead people to murder in the name of God. We have to be careful about our words.
Hate is not limited by political party or religion; hate is an equal opportunity employer. As a follower of Jesus, I am not allowed to hate; more than that, though, I am expected – commanded – to love. I am expected to stand with the oppressed. Because not speaking – not supporting people under attack – is the same as pulling the trigger. This is what I think Jesus meant when He equated anger with murder in Matthew 5. We can’t sit by and say or do nothing; we can’t ignore hate speech, mistaking it for freedom. Maybe we can’t arrest someone for saying terrible things, but we can shine a light on them. We can vote against them. We can join with others who work to bring sanity into the world. No pew-sitters, please. We either work for justice, or against it. There is no standing still.
Prayer – Holy God, give us the courage to stand against the tide of hatred we see growing around us. May our words and our actions match. Amen.
Today’s art is “Surely God is most merciful to you” by Sherif Aly.