I'm sure there will be plenty to say, as the days pass, about the initiative Tuesday that added an anti-gay amendment to North Carolina's constitution. And God knows, self-proclaimed Christians scare the bejesus out of me much of the time.
But I did like North Carolina Pastor David Eck's take on the whole thing this morning. Eck, a Lutheran pastor, lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with his husband, Gary Mitchell, commissioned minister of music and arts at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Ashville. Eck serves Abiding Savior Lutheran Church in Fairview, North Carolina.
Eck and his congregation remained mutually faithful during the years preceding the fairly recent ELCA decision to allow partnered LBGT clergy to serve.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER?
By David Eck
©2012
©2012
Love one another as I have loved you
It seems so simple, so straightforward
But...love the "bleeding heart" liberal?
Love the "family values" conservative?
Love the Muslim? The Jew? The Buddhist? The Wiccan?
Love the illegal immigrant? The person of privilege?
Love the gay? The lesbian? The transgendered?
Love the peace protester? The warmonger?
Love the Iraqui? The Palestinian? The North Korean?
Love the Republican? The Democrat?
Love the homeless? The beggar? The AIDS patient? The death row inmate?
We tend to love with our fingers crossed
Looking for a loophole
Looking for a way to limit those whom we choose to love
Like the religious scholar who once asked Jesus
"And who is my neighbor?"
We love selectively, conditionally
We love those who look like us
Think like us, believe like us
Who would Jesus hate?
No one!
The only thing Jesus got angry about
Was spiritual hypocrisy
Those who claimed to love God
But could not bring themselves
To love all of their neighbors
Those who believed they were God's chosen ones
While treating others as if they were evil personified
Love one another as I have loved you
Maybe it's not so simple after all
But it is the mark
By which others will know
That we are disciples of Jesus
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