What if that mission was love? How would we view our world? Ourselves? How would we treat others if viewed through our love-generating plexiglass window? How would we view and treat strangers? Harder yet, our “enemies”?

I wonder how many people would stop following Jesus if He denounced America?

“Well, what does it say in that Bible you read?” Jesus replied.

“To love you will my entire heart, soul, mind, and strength. And to love my fellow human as I love myself.”

“Correct. Live this way and you will truly live.”

Wanting to make himself look good, the Christian asked Jesus, “Who is my fellow human?”

“A single woman was driving on an old rural road late at night. When she stopped at a stop sign three thugs jumped out of the car in front of her, pulled her out, beat and raped her, took anything of value and left her on the side of the road.

“An evangelical pastor approached the intersection, saw the woman, and ignoring her, he kept driving.

“Shortly afterwards an Episcopal priest drove up, saw the woman, and not wanting to get involved, she too kept driving.

“But a Muslim man, as he drove towards the woman, saw her and a deep compassion rose up in him. He pulled over, removed his jubba and clothed the woman in it. He lifted her beaten body into his car and drove her to the closest ER, staying by her bedside the whole night. Needing to leave the next morning, he left his credit card to cover all her bills until she fully recovered. A week later, on his way back home, he returned to the hospital to see how she was doing.

“Which of these people treated this woman as a fellow human?”

The biblical Christian said, “The person who cared for her.”

“Then go and follow the Muslim’s example.”

The Michael Gungor Band “White Man”. God is Love. God is Good. And, yes, God does love everyone!

So this year, I am shutting up and I’m giving my birthday up.

I’m turning 35 years old, and instead of asking for gifts, I’m asking for $35 or more from everyone I know. It’s not going to me, though. All of it is going to build freshwater wells for people in developing nations.

A billion people in the world are living without clean water – but how much are they really living? Millions contract deadly diseases from contaminated water. 45,000 people will die this week alone. The lucky ones won’t, but still walk hours each day to get dirty water to give to their families.

My birthday wish this year is not for more gifts I don’t need; it’s to give clean and safe drinking water to some of the billion living without it. I want to make my birthday matter this year.

Please join me.

Peace,
Jeromy

The issue is when we just yell and demand Don’t! without lifting a finger to actually help. Guaranteed that 90% of the people telling the other not to abort are not willing to adopt their child.

In the particular case that hit this cord in my soul, the woman has a very high chance of death if she goes full term, and she already has a special-needs child who needs her to live, she got pregnant (her surgical birth control failed) and was placed in a dilemma none of us would want to be in. Regardless, when she went public about the day-to-day process of living with that choice and her abortion (within the first 4 weeks), all heavenly-hell broke loose on her. She received emails and comments to the tune of, “keep killing babies, you nipple face witch!”

Of all those Christians (and many unspoken more) who are spewing venom, how many do you think would drive to her house (pretending she was able to go full-term) and take care of / adopt her child? Multiply this and many pro-life scenarios by the 1,000s, and you see where words (specially the seething kind) with no love-action is anti-Christ.

The other fire for this rant is some perspective (thanks Tor). 1.5 abortions take place every minute, 90 an hour. Compared to 66 people who die of starvation every minute (11 of which are children), 3,960 an hour. — let that sink in…90 vs 3,960 — Now a case can be made either way about when life begins, or doesn’t begin, in the womb; is it a life or a potential life, etc. However, those 3,960 people ARE lives 100%, no argument, no debate; living, breathing — but not eating — bodies and souls. Given that the large majority of both Biblical testaments speak clearly about the poor (starving people included) and our human response to them, and hints in a few obscure/poetic verses at when possible life might begin in the womb, pretty safe to say where one should error.

The point of this was not to argue morality, per se, but to point out that no one is listening to us any more. Why? Cause we aint lovin. If we as a collective whole tackle the issues Jesus was crystal clear about and bring that 95,000 people a day down to a few hundred because we zipped our mouths and put food in other’s mouths, perhaps then, MAYBE then, people will stand up and notice Christians, not for what they say , but because of their love.

Local case in point. A church (one church out of hundreds) in the Sacramento area opened their building to house and feed the poor/homeless 2 days a week. People noticed. Newspapers noticed. Other organizations noticed. And their love is changing lives; other’s and their own.

And the irony is that as I write this I realize I have no right to judge you, and that’s our quagmire, isn’t it? We are all a bunch of egotistical, self-righteous hypocrites who find it much easier to hate the other (or politely distance ourselves from them and their world) than to love the other. So forgive my tantrum, but as a family of people who claim to follow God, let us encourage one another to do just that. The words you speak to those you currently consider outside of God’s grace should echo God’s grace, not Satan’s venom. Sadly, and the reason for my tirade, I fear it is too often the second.

So please, shut the hell up and begin loving your enemies, blessing those who curse you, selling your possessions, feed and cloth and love and bless and forgive, forgive, forgive. Perhaps then, the world will stand up and notice God, not because of our words, but because of our love.

There. I said it. Thanks for letting me vent.

I am amazed. Since California legalized same-sex marriages in May, 2008 and an estimated 22,000 people of the same sex have wed…our social world and order hasn’t collapsed or fallen apart, as some feared it would.

In fact, I have hardly noticed any difference in life at all, except the amount of money and rhetoric raised in fighting it rather than fighting against the things Jesus was clearly against, namely poverty, injustice and materialism (a homework assignment…look at the number of time Jesus taught on the sins of homosexuality vs. poverty, injustice and materialism…hint, the ratio will look like 0/100). If only we had the same passion to raise $25-27 million dollars in four months (the amount raised since May to support California’s Prop 8) and divide school campuses across the state to combat poverty, injustice and materialism. It really makes me sad and my heart heavy.

But when we profit everyday from poverty, injustice and materialism, why would we truly want it to end. But two men or two women having the word “married” applied to them rather than words “domestic partner” will send us into an uproar…as we are witnessing.

Anyway, for what’s its worth, these are simply my observations of the whole ordeal…

I really wonder how Jesus is feeling.

Here is another one that includes Palin participating in a rap video on Weekend Update…