James 24:7

"You're familiar with the command to the ancients, 'Do not murder.' I'm telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother 'idiot!' and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell 'stupid!' at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.”  (Matthew 5:21-22; The Message)

 "You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.”  (Matthew 5:43-47; The Message)

Yesterday I made the harsh comment that I hated pedophiles. The context for that comment (which you can see if you read below) was a post in which I asked what it means to be pro-life.  Specifically, I was addressing the matter of which lives are worth defending.  Pro-life folks are fond of saying that they defend the lives of the unborn because they are the most innocent among us.  I was wondering whether “non-innocent’ life is worth defending.  

See…I am not innocent.  Is my life worth defending?  How does one decide?  How “non-innocent” does one have to be to become indefensible?  Where do we draw the line or on what basis do we draw the line when it comes to the question of defending life?  And again, what does it mean to be “for life”?  I assume that defending life is the least we can do.  It seems to me that being “pro-life” means that we do things not only to defend life but to enhance it.  

I slept on my claim of hatred last night.  Much depends on how you define that term.  I think I will back off that claim.  After all, it seems to me that “hatred” suggests something far more sinister, far more active, and far more relentless than I know.  To my way of thinking, hatred entails not only harsh feelings toward people you take to be despicable but also actions to blot out the despicable.  I am not interested in taking anyone out and, truth be told, time and energy constraints prohibit sustained harsh feelings. 

I’m too busy and too tired and not nearly organized enough for hatred.

I repudiate myself.  I do not hate pedophiles.  If I am guilty of anything I am guilty of a million little murders.  (Whew!  Do I feel better!)

“I'm telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder.”  -Jesus.

Thankfully I am not guilty of a hate crime.  My little murders are rapid fire assaults on those who I find repugnant, despicable, and so “non-innocent” as to deserve death-by-Jim.  So, like Elvis, who allegedly shot up his TV in a Las Vegas hotel room, I sit in the comfort of my living room, watch the news with a bowl of popcorn in my lap and pull the trigger on my 9mm heart. 

I fire hollow-point-word-bullets out of rage.  (If only my words were as dignified as “Raca” or “fool”!)

I spoke to my congregation on Sunday about what it might mean to be “pro-life”.   After the service a couple of men approached me to further the conversation.  They were thinking about whether they were truly “pro-life” after what I had said.  They confessed that, based upon what I had said, that maybe they weren’t so “pro-life” after all.  One of them held his newborn daughter while he talked.

I confessed right back at them.  I confessed that I find it very easy to talk about being “pro-life”, even to hold up “peacemaking” as a central Christian practice, but that I did so as one who is guilty of a million little murders.

As I talked with them I could hear faint words in the back of my mind.  A favorite professor was speaking:

He said: “Jim, never forget how easy it is to offer God our dignity rather than our repentance.”