Free Speech, Hate Speech or Easter’s Message of Forgiveness?
Posted: Tuesday, March 15, 2011
by Carol Allen Anfinsen
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On Wednesday, March 2, the Supreme Court sided with the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas that the First Amendment protects fundamentalist church members who mount anti-gay protests outside military funerals despite the pain they cause grieving families.
Justice Robert’s reasoning: “they obeyed police directions and were 1,000 feet from the church.
“While distancing themselves from the church’s message,” a reporter stated; “media organizations, including the Associated Press, urge the Court to side with the church because of concerns that a victory for the injured family could erode speech rights.”
The father of the dead marine sued Westboro for five million dollars citing the emotional grief his family suffered over the protest and the signs that read: “Thank God for dead soldiers;” “You’re going to hell,” “God hates the USA” (for their tolerance of homosexuality), “Thank God for 9/11.”
Whether you agree or disagree with the church or the Supreme Court’s ruling, it is notable that a ruling was made on the side of free speech for all, even religious organizations with whom we may not agree.
As for the church, I’m saddened to see a so-called Christian church resort to hatred in the name of truth. Christ said that we are all sinners, every one of us. Thinking that we are somehow better than others because we belong to a Christian church so named is like the pot calling the kettle black. The church is for sinners. We are no better no worse than anyone else in this world.
My aunt Geri used to tell me: “When you start thinking you’re righteous, beware! That’s just when you’re not!”
In Jesus day, the Pharisees were “holier than thou.” They were too good for Jesus or for anyone else. They were expert at name calling and throwing stones. They suffered from what I like to call: “Hyacinth Bucket syndrome.”
We can all see ourselves in Hyacinth Bucket (“pronounced Boo-Kay,” as in bouquet); the star of the British comedy: “Keeping up Appearances.” Hyacinth comes from a lowly working class family, but she’s determined to rise above this and become a part of the elite in British society. She covers up her insecurities by boasting about the “things” she thinks will bring her recognition and importance.
We enjoy Hyacinth’s drive to become part of the upper crust; her focus to put on airs and to “keep up with the Jones’s” no matter what. Her self-righteous antics and tirades keep us laughing. We can relate to her because we see a part of ourselves in her behavior.
I have a friend who is very persnickety about what she eats and how. She keeps restaurant waiters and waitresses on the run. Friends and fellow diners are sometimes embarrassed or offended. I was dining with one of the latter who mentioned our friend’s behavior with disdain until she was served a dish that wasn’t quite to her liking.
She called the waiter over and asked for extra sauce complaining about her dry noodles. After the waiter left, she looked at me and we both laughed realizing the tables had been turned. “Now who do I sound like?” she said, feeling apologetic.
The most successful sitcoms are about ordinary people like you and me and the funny things we say and do just being ourselves. Authentic down to earth people we can relate to. They become endearing to us because they are us.
Christ was drawn to people like this; hard working people who do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, and sinners: the weak and the infirm, the unlearned -- the underdog. He loved them all.
As Christians, we must remember that the weaknesses of others are sometimes our own. We do not live by Old Testament rules any longer requiring an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Christ brought a better way.
When he talked with the woman at Jacob’s well, a Samaritan, he did not use “hate speech” and call her a dirty Samaritan, a whore or a sinner (even though she was, and he knew it). Instead, Jesus saw a teaching moment. The woman had brought a bucket with a rope to draw water. Jesus sat on the edge of the well and had neither. He asked her for a drink.
In that day and time, the Jews had no dealings with Samaritans so the woman was surprised. “How is it that you being a Jew, asked me for a drink?”
Jesus said “If you knew the gifts of God and who it is that asked you for a drink, you would have asked of me, and I would have given you living water.”
“Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from where then do you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well?”
Jesus said: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again: But whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give shall never thirst again…”
“Sir, give me this water,” the woman said “that I thirst not, neither come here to draw.” (John 4:1-42)
Jesus had come to the well offering friendship. He did not condemn the woman for having five husbands nor for living with a man who was not her husband. He did not call her names or insult her intelligence. He simply expressed the truth of whom and what he was and invited her to taste of his “living water." He did not judge or condemn her; he offered her the sweetness of eternal life.
When the Pharisees confronted him at the temple with a woman “taken in adultery,” and reminded him that Moses law required that she be stoned. Jesus stooped to the ground as if he did not hear them and wrote in the sand. When they continued asking him he stood up and said: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
Jesus stooped to the ground again and began writing with his finger. When he stood up, they were all gone. “Woman, where are your accusers?” he asked. “Has no man condemned you?”
“No man, Lord,” she said.
“Neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more.”
Jesus did not call her an adulterous. He did not shame her, flash a public sign for all to see, nor call her names. He wrote his thoughts privately in the sand and allowed the hearts of her accusers to condemn themselves. He simply told her “go thy way, and sin no more.”
When my children were small, their favorite movie was Mary Poppins; their favorite song: “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” Jesus was not afraid to call a sin a sin, and to scathe the actions of sinners. But he always used a spoonful of honey (love) to help the medicine go down. He chastised the sin without destroying the sinner. He offered the gift of forgiveness, encouraging the sinner to turn away from his or her sins.
My Mom used to say: “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Perhaps we need to remember this advice next time we want to condemn the sinners among us, of which we are the greatest of all.
When Jesus was hanging from the cross at the time of his crucifixion, he looked down on his accusers and those who had given him a hyssop of vinegar to drink, and he prayed aloud: “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.” He said this while the people were shouting: “He saved others; let him save himself,” “If he be the Christ, the chosen of God, let him save himself.” “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!”
The scriptures tell us “there were also two other malefactors, led with him to be put to death; crucified along with him, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. And one of them “railed on him, saying, if thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
“But the other answering rebuked him, saying, do you not fear God, seeing you are not without condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man has done nothing wrong.”
And then he said to Jesus: “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
J esus said unto him, “Verily I say unto thee, today shall you be with me in Paradise.”
“And it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
“And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said this, he gave up the ghost.” (Luke 23:32-47)
Christ took our sins upon himself and gave up his life; shed his blood, so that we might be forgiven for our sins. There is no greater love than this.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
“For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)
God’s grace and Christian love were given new meaning that day. It is up to us to keep it alive by reaching out rather than throwing stones, by declaring truth and forgiveness rather than shouting insults and condemnation.
A Christian’s joy and salvation is to know that we have an advocate with the Father who will plead for us, pray for us, and forgive us of our weaknesses and sins. There is no excuse for hurting or harming our neighbors. There is no room in the Christian’s heart for hate.
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