Ugly Words, Ugly Hearts

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 As I mentioned earlier, I used to have another blog. I wrote there for about four years – for a while, I was posting two or three times a week. But I stopped writing in 2016. I kind of ran out of anything hopeful to say. It was an election year, and the ugly political atmosphere was seeping into my community atmosphere, and I was feeling smothered with the ugliness and condemned by friends I disagreed with for being stupid and evil and condemned by friends I agreed with for being weak and accommodating. I didn’t have the emotional strength to fight the despair I felt for the church or the turbulence I felt within myself.

A lot has happened in the last four years – in the country and in my life. The despair for the church has increased. The turbulence within myself is abating. I’m still a little afraid . . . but I need to open my mouth again. (Lord, help.)

The election in November unsettled me. The QAnon movement has stunned me. The insurrection at the Capitol shocked and saddened me.

But the words I’ve been seeing from some of my friends on Facebook . . . oh, people. My friends’ words have horrified me.

I’ll admit to not being as informed as I probably should be about things happening in the world today. I’ve been . . . you know . . . surviving a personal earthquake. And can we all be honest about this: being an “informed” American seems like a fantasy goal these days when you have no way of knowing who is telling you the truth anymore.

But friends. Oh, friends. I don’t have to be “informed” to know that it is entirely out of line to call Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez evil.

I don’t have to be “informed” to know that it is entirely out of line to publicly mock and rejoice at the death of Rush Limbaugh.

I don’t have to be “informed” to know that – as troubled as I am about his words and actions and influence – it is entirely out of line to call Donald Trump the antichrist. OR the messiah.

The words coming out of my friends’ mouths (well, out of their fingers onto social media platforms) . . . they are stunning. They are horrifying. These are people I know – people I have lived life with – people I’ve done ministry with – and I cannot believe the things my friends are saying.

“The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean’.”

I don’t want to believe this is your heart, friend. Tell me that somewhere, deep inside you, you remember that God loves your enemy as much as he loves you. That Jesus died for them just like he died for you. That they sometimes get things right and sometimes get things wrong and sometimes have great intentions and sometimes have corrupt motives and sometimes do all of these things all within the same hour of their lives . . . JUST LIKE YOU.

Oh, friends. Don’t be such people. Be better. We all have to be better. That’s the only hope for the world. And we need hope again. I need hope again.

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