I was driving past Northwoods Assembly of God church last week and noticed the sign out front. Sometimes they have very postive messages and sometimes they are divisive, fear, shame, and hate filled messages.
Last week's message was the latter. It suggested that because Jesus was at the right hand of the father, only those politically on the "right" are worth spending time on and churches shouldn't waste effort with those on the "left". At first I was almost certain they really didn't intend for it to mean that, so I called the church and asked. The person who responded to my phone message inquiry did not identify himself. Anyway, the caller assured me that was exactly what was meant. I was dumbfounded and dismayed.
It is amazing to me that the party who fights for the poor, wants all Americans to have healthcare coverage, wants equal opportunity for all, believes in affordable and accessible education for all, advocates respect for workers' rights, fights for living wages for all workers, supports fair taxation for all individuals, votes for peace and justice at home and in the world and opposes illegal wars and occupations is not seen by some to be Christ like. Perhaps they forgot who Jesus spent most of his time working with and the message of peace, tolerance, love and inclusion of all promoted by Jesus?
It is bad enough that our current administration prefers the politics of division and hate versus cooperation and collaboration. It becomes especially onerous and disturbing when a "christian" institution promotes these politics of division and hate.
As a left leaning Democratic Christian, I am continually amazed and dismayed at how the so-called "christian right" continues its message of fear and hate...all in the name of Jesus. And what's even more disturbing is that some people are buying this message!
ADVERTISEMENT
What this community, this nation and the world needs is more of Jesus' beliefs and attitudes being put into practice versus the self righteous, self serving attitudes and messages being promoted by some so-called "christian" groups.
Shame, shame, shame on you for promoting these types of messages and shame, shame, shame on any of your parishioners who support this.
Sincerely,
Dan Peterson
