The Power of Love: Who Would Jesus Refuse to Serve? - an Easter article for the local newspaper

This article was written and submitted well before Indiana recently made it legal for people to refuse service to anyone they don't like, or hate, or fear, or wish could be legislated out of the country, etc. But it was published today, a few days after Indiana has opened an incredible can of worms on the pretense of "freedom" and "ending religious discrimination" (which is actually "ending the law that keeps religious folk from discriminating against others", but folks in that camp seem to like to redefine words and phrases, and so they also give us "peacekeeper missiles" and "right to work" laws that actually hinder the right to work and benefit the employers).

So I retitled the article to be a bit more timely, though I have not edited any of the words. If I were writing it now, I would include mention of Indiana's new "Nobody has legal protection from being abused from businesses and ideological zealots any more" law. Because let's be honest - though the law was passed under the rubric that it would allow Christians to not have to serve those terrible LGBT people, it will also allow Muslims to not serve Christians, or allow LGBT-owned business to refuse to serve the governor who passed the law, or allow anyone to refuse to serve anyone else for any reason (too fat, too thin, too black, too white, too brown, too liberal, too conservative, wrong color hair, left-handed, female, single mother, unmarried-but-not-a-virgins, ACLU members, NRA members, and so on and so on and so on).

This law is particularly heinous simply because it was triumphed by self-proclaimed Christians; as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, this really bothers me because if there was one thing Jesus was about, it was about not discriminating. And it is also heinous because if a business refuses service to gay people, those same gay people - if they are police or firemen/women or doctors, for example - have to serve and protect that business owner. On a much larger scale, that business owner that is allowed to tell gay people to go elsewhere lives under the protection of how many LGBT soldiers, marines, sailors, etc.? Can the gay person working at the municipal water supply shut off the main to that business when they're on duty? Can the transgender person at the power plant? The transvestite emergency room intake person?

Jesus said to love your neighbor, not to keep finding new ways to ensure that they live as second- or third-class citizens, whether of the country or of the Kindom/Realm/Commonwealth of God. Sheesh. Grow up, folks.

I think that in the rush to be "pure" and "holy", too many confused Christians can't look far enough beyond their own piety to realize how dirty they've just made themselves and their community. And to do so under the pretense that this is what Jesus wants is just infuriating and heart-breaking.

Here is the article, and then below it I include a photo of it as it was published in today's Leader-Telegram newspaper in Eau Claire, WI. It is not available online, unfortunately.

The Article

Easter is the premiere Holy Day in the Christian calendar. It celebrates Jesus’ triumph over death and violence by rising from the dead the Sunday after his crucifixion. It is so important that Sunday became the normative day for the Church’s worship gatherings, and other Sundays are considered little Easters.

Easter is special to me for a more geeky reason. It’s our only astronomy-based holy day. Each year the earth makes another circuit around the sun, but Easters are not exactly a year apart. Last Easter wasn’t a year ago, it was 50 weeks ago. What’s up with that? Easter is not a fixed calendar day like Christmas. Nor does it float within the calendar, like Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November). Easter is instead fixed to the celestial roaming of the moon around the earth and the earth around the sun, a holdover from the Jewish lunar calendar. In Western Christianity, Easter’s date is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Orthodox Christians use a slightly different system, which is why you may have noticed your wall calendar often having one Sunday labeled Easter and another labeled Orthodox Easter.

End of digression. Easter is important because of that rising from the dead thing Jesus did. It is the day of salvation. I like to say “Jesus rose from the dead for us” instead of “Jesus died for me”. It speaks to the universal effect of his resurrection, and reminds us that Easter is about life, not death. Jesus did willingly die, yes; but he rose from the dead a few days later to show us the power of love. To show us that, whatever eagerness we have to fire up the engines of death to kill and hurt and cause fear and divide, this is false power, a weakness completely impotent against the power of love.

That’s the scandalous nature of Jesus! He doesn’t play by our rules. Whoever we dislike, might wish to be barred from heaven or earthly life, or are positive has lost favor with God, Jesus rose from the dead for that person, too. That’s worth remembering. He rose for murderers and for life-bringers. For people of every political persuasion. For illegal immigrants and natives. For Americans and Iranians. For miners deep underground and astronauts in the International Space Station. For ISIS and for nuns. Gamblers, adulterers, addicts, smokers, vegans, hipsters, and goth. Communists and capitalists. Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, atheists, and every other expression. Children on our borders and our border’s patrollers Whatever one’s gender identity, sexuality, hobbies, or hair color, Jesus rose for you and them. Everyone.

So imagine if we lived according to Easter’s scandalous love. What if we took a moment to remember “Jesus’ resurrection was for this person” the next time we’re tempted to dehumanize someone online, or a waitress, the neighbor who votes differently, the man with a different religion or the woman from another country? Imagine Jesus holding them in arms of love as you hurl viciousness at them. Seems pretty childish and wrong, doesn’t it? Easter’s power is quenching death’s tempting voice and easy ways in favor of life and the power of love to transform people, and thus transform the world we share with one another. And it comes around once an orbit with a full moon every springtime to remind us of who we are supposed to be. Let us be that.