I have been a Christian, a follower of Jesus, my whole life. I was a church kid, one who participated in every activity and wore WWJD bracelets and sang along with the praise band at every youth gathering, confident in the goodness and power of Jesus and his teachings. I worshipped a Jesus who loved everyone, who never left anyone behind and who spoke up for those society discarded. Jesus loved everyone, and as a Christian, my job was to do the same.
The catch, though, with Jesus, is that he taught us to love the people others forgot: the meek, the poor, the ones cast out in society. He taught to be true followers of his, we have to remember the least of these, those whom others ignore, ostracize and dehumanize.
Christine Krieger
This is my story, but it’s not a story about me. This is about America right now, a glimpse into what is happening that maybe you know about or don’t know about or maybe you haven’t thought about.
Recently, I was with a dear friend and rabbi as she found out her former synagogue was a victim of arson. In Jackson, Miss., a young man broke into the temple with an axe, poured gasoline all over the front lobby and the library, and set the place on fire. He went home and told his father what he did, stating that it was a “synagogue of Satan” and he did it because of their “Jewish ties.”
His Instagram bio claims he is a “follower of Christ,” and in his hearing with the federal magistrate, he referenced Jesus Christ as his Lord.
Fortunately, no one at the synagogue was injured, but two Torahs were destroyed and five others were damaged. The only one that survived intact was one that was behind glass, having previously survived the Holocaust.
“Burning the homes of your neighbors is not the Christianity Jesus taught.”
Burning the homes of your neighbors is not the Christianity Jesus taught.
A few days later, worn out from work, the news and life, I made a last-minute decision to attend the protest to speak up against ICE and the murder of Renee Good. Fresh from my morning remembrance of my baptism, I made a sign with words from Micah 6:8 — He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?
As I stood in the cold wind on the sidewalk along Route 1 in Bel Air, Md., six people called me a bitch, more than 50 people yelled some version of “f*** you” at me, and one person held up a Bible at the group of us and screamed, “Go to church, motherf******!”
Confused, I yelled back, “This is FROM the Bible!”
When I got home, I looked on a community Facebook page and saw a number of posts from people talking about the protests, calling the protesters “mentally ill trash,” a “waste of life,” and saying we “should be put in a firing line.”
Out of morbid curiosity, I clicked on a few of their profiles. All of them mentioned “the Lord,” “faith” or “Jesus” as important to them.
Calling for the death of your neighbors is not the Christianity Jesus taught.
To be clear, I did not antagonize any of these people. And yet, people were ready to attack. Acquaintances and neighbors contributed to and liked the horrible Facebook posts. I hope they realize real people are behind each of these figures they have dehumanized. It is one thing to disagree; it is another thing to claim people who disagree with you deserve to be hurt.
Jesus took time to see people for who they were. He stopped for the downtrodden. He listened for the disenfranchised. He made space for the marginalized. He welcomed the stranger. He fed the hungry. He loved people, so much that he died for us. Let’s not waste that by hating each other, by ignoring suffering and by dehumanizing the very people who Jesus would’ve gone to first.
My question now, for anyone who has gotten this far, is this: What do we do next? How do we do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God?
Christine Krieger is an active lay leader at Holy Communion Lutheran Church in Fallston, Md. She resides in Bel Air, Md., and is a current BJC fellow.