Don’t we Have to “Love our Neighbor” Anymore?

Let’s face it. The world has gone crazy. As my mother used to say, I never thought I would live to see this. What I really don’t understand is that much of the chaos is being created in the name of religion.

Let me start by dispelling the myth that the United States is a Christian nation. There is no state religion. Each person is free to believe and worship or not according to their own conscience. It doesn’t matter according to the constitution politically, if you are Baptist, Catholic, Christian Scientist, Buddhist, Muslim, Pentecostal or anything else, you have the right to have those beliefs and to be allowed to practice them. The Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee University has an article that explains this in detail.

I was brought up American Baptist and many years ago I began studying to become a minister. From the time I was a child I heard sermons on brotherhood, loving and helping one another and creating a church family. The outreach of my home church was about helping more than converting.

I have never heard such angry, vile and downright mean rhetoric in the name of religion as I am hearing now. And all I can think is where did this come from? Aren’t we charged with loving our neighbor anymore? If not, when did it change? I didn’t get the memo.

The truth is, it didn’t. If we follow the gospel of and not just about Jesus we are to follow his way of life. Just saying,”I took Jesus as my Saviour” is not enough if we do not follow his life and teachings to become more Christlike. And those teachings are not always easy or popular. Before you start challenging me on this please get out your Bible and read James 2:14-26.