Last week, along with a couple of hundred others, I sang a song in a worship service, something about "we walk by faith and not by sight." I know the line is scriptural, and therefore struck by the very hand of the Holy Spirit; but I don't mind saying that I just about choked on the words because sometimes good Christian people do--walk by faith and not by sight, which is to say, blindly. Sometimes--am I some kind of heretic?--we must use our vision too, for Christ's sake.
Case in point: I don't have the slightest idea how to understand the strange phenomenon represented in the photo above. Is it paranoia? People who believe Obama is a Muslim are my neighbors, good devout Christian people. Are they so constitutionally convinced that this man, the elected President of the United States, is a conspiratorial liar? Do they believe he is somehow plotting the establishment of a Muslim state here in America? In Sioux Center? In Sioux County?
Honestly, I'm just dumbfounded.
Watch the story here, please, it's all about good Christian people. Help me understand. These people are my brothers and sisters in Christ, or aren't they?
1 comment:
It's all about our fear, hatred and the inability to control the "OTHER." In some circles it's accepted that God has chosen some "hopefully me" and damned all the rest. It is not fashionable today to openly express fear and distain for people of color. So we have to come up with "acceptable" methods of expressing our fear, doubt and resulting hatred of the "OTHER." Could this fear be right there in Sioux Center and Sioux County. "Sue Center" I can picture, but Sioux Center? I would guess that the Dakota-Lakota are not given much thought in Sioux Land. It's hard for some to admit that an African American "OTHER" is the elected President of the US of America. So he must surely be a Muslim, one that all "good Americans" can openly express
their fear and hatred upon. Then it's OK. As "good devout Christian people" we need to spend more time in Math. 5,6 and 7. Who needs Abraham's "faith" as a verb instead of a noun, if the crops are good and we can joyfully thank our God that HE HAS BLESSED His children in Sioux Land. How many Navajo pastors after 100 ywears?
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