Monday, August 19, 2019

“Don’t Put That on Jesus”: The Wrongful Justification of Hatred with Christianity.

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( “Jeeeesus is looooooove….”  I can hear Lionel Richie singing that song about a very popular entity in the Christian religion.  The song elaborates on a really important value to Christianity:  love. Love for your fellow man. Love for self. Love for HIM because of HIS sacrifice.  As a Christian, I appreciate all of these different facets of love, but I also know that I am human and imperfect.  So…I am not going to experience love all the time. There will be moments when curiosity, worry, and hate happen.  Especially hate.

I fully understand that hate is a part of who we are, and I have nothing against it.  I do have a problem, however, when we justify the injustice of others with Christian values and beliefs.  That is not Jesus, my dear. That is you.

Historically speaking, Christianity has been used to wage wars and oppress races.  The Crusades expeditions of the 11th century happened because Christians wanted control of certain areas in the Middle East pertinent to Christian history like Jerusalem.  European nations insisted that the Muslim nation was not religious enough to be in control:  “Their (European Christians) objectives were to check the spread of Islam, to retake control of the Holy Land in the eastern Mediterranean, to conquer pagan areas, and to recapture formerly Christian territories; they were seen by many of their participants as a means of redemption and expiation for sins.” Then, you have American groups like the Ku Klux Klan that wholehearted believed that they were sent to earth to rid the world of other ideologies and races.  In their view, good Christians “believe in racial purity and Protestant morality [to] save the country from destruction.”  While I truly appreciate my historical Christian brothers and possibly sisters, I also believe that they hid behind God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in order conceal their true purpose: power.  Europeans controlling the Middle East would give them access to rare and valuable resources such as oil.  They would also have more land at their disposal.  For the KKK, there was a fear of Caucasians losing control due to the Civil Rights movement that happened after the end of the Civil War. Creating this group and terrorizing other races and beliefs was supposed to involve fear in order to maintain power.

Recently, a Facebook group titled “Christian’s Against the Little Mermaid (Boycott Halle Bailey)” was created by Wade Wilson because of Disney’s choice to portray a fictional white character using an African American actress:  “Disney has jumped on the bandwagon of turning prominent red headed, fair skinned characters into POC (Person of Color). Why not just create a new character? Why is Hollywood trying to wipe out gingers???  We will no longer tolerate this liberal propaganda! We are taking a stand against this injustice!!!”  His opinion is his opinion, and I have no problem with it.  My concern is with the idea that Christianity has a problem with actors playing fictional characters without any biblical reference or clarification.  To my knowledge, there is no scriptural support to his argument.  If he wants to be a white person boycotting this change, that is perfectly fine. If he wants to be a white conservative person boycotting this change, that is great. He is entitled to his perspective.  Jesus has nothing to do with that.

Experiencing multiple emotions shows that you are human and healthy. I think that emotions have led us to believe that we can haphazardly use religion to validate our stance and no one will question us on it. Why? Because it is religion. Questioning our religious belief would be like questioning Jesus, and we have been taught for many years that is wrong.  Plus, religion and spirituality have a relationship with your emotions. So it is not surprising that feelings would be involved.  Whatever you feel is what you feel. There is no need to hide or cower behind someone, something, or some spiritual entity.  Instead, use your Christian beliefs as valuable and solid evidence to your argument or opinion.  If you cannot do so, leave Christianity out of your problematic perspective. It already has enough on its plate.

Staff Writer; J. W. Bella


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