By our hate? Wait, no. Love. LOVE!!

I follow a former Orthodox priest-turned-writer named Father Nathan Monk on a few of my social media accounts. Now, by his own admission, he is an atheist and has been for ten years or so, but he is one of the most patient writers in regards to Christianity and Biblical interpretations I have read in awhile (admittedly, I don’t read much in the way of Biblical interpretations these days, but that’s a topic for another day). Because this month is Pride Month, he has been working on a series of articles via Substack that take the very Bible “clobber verses” that have been used to oppress the LGTBQIA+ community and dissecting them, adding his own bits of wit as he can. He also wrote an article on the relationship of David and Jonathan that, while sometimes a bit vulgar because of the aforementioned wit, was well-written. If you are interested in reading any of them, well, I did link it if you can find it.

The number of people in the comments of his social medias who scorned the article and then bashed Father Nathan Monk without having even read the article were astounding. The number of self-professed Christians who went on to belittle and insult his interpretations and his opinion and trash him was also astounding. It reminded me of a quote by Brennan Manning (oh, hey, another former priest-turned-writer) who said:

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

Last night, I attended an ecumenical worship service lead by the youth that are part of the Simpson Youth Academy’s Summer Residency, a unique opportunity in central Iowa for high school juniors and seniors to explore upon and reflect upon their faith journey while giving them a nine-day taste of college life as well. Because a youth from our teeny-tiny church is a part of it and helped to actually lead the service, my other half and I, along with this youth’s parents and our pastor, attended to show our support. The song of refrain was one that is near and dear to my heart:

“We are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord. We are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord, and we pray that all unity may one day be restored. And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

~ Father Peter Scholtes (yet a third [but not former] priest-turned-author!)

It’s amazing to me, and has been for awhile, that the greatest commandment given by Jesus isn’t seemingly followed by those who utilize the social media comments and profess to be his followers. Whatever happened to the idea that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:27, John 13:34-35)?

They will know we are Christians by our love…..

Not by who we declare to be excluded from church, be it because of their ethnicity, their gender, their orientation, their disabilities, their neurodivergences, their past or whatever other means……

Not by how large a treasury we have or how great we can make an entire nation….

Not by how literally we can interpret a book that is two millennia old or by insulting those who hold different opinions on those interpretations than we do…..

Not by our politics or our divisions, no matter how large some may make them out to be…..

They will know we are Christians by our love.

But I also think:

We cannot say it is well with our souls when there are souls out there that are broken because of the church and its past mistakes.

We cannot say we are Christians and then not do for the least of these (Matt. 25:40), the immigrant, the marginalized, the needy, the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, etc.

We can’t profess a Lord and Savior and a one true God if we do not do what he commands and do justly, love mercy and walk humbly (Micah 6:8), extending those tenements to everyone, especially those whom we’ve pushed to the outside for so long.

We cannot be one in spirit if we do not embrace our neighbors for who they are, not what we think they need to be.

We cannot take grace for ourselves if we do not share that grace with others as well.

Dear magical friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, we cannot be Christians without love.

For they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

Not hate.

Not rage.

Not animosity.

Not exclusion.

Love.

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