The Intersection of Bible and Life

Except in extreme cases (Nazi Germany) we really don’t have to develop a curriculum for hate.   We teach it by example.   We start by creating a toxic culture.   In this climate we breathe in hostility while breathing out anger.   We fixate on distinctions among people and these become glaring differences that separate.   We tend to be tribal.   We organize into groups and then draw lines and circles.   We include some.   We exclude others.   All based on these differences that seem all-important. I learned to hate by listening and watching.   What I heard and what I witnessed shaped my identity.   My tribe became white, Protestant and south side.   I vividly remember a white, Protestant friend from the south side running down the stairs of his home where I was playing that day shouting with a disgusting joy and applauding enthusiastically that Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot and killed.   I remember conversations between my parents about Catholic privilege in our small town.

I began a recent sermon with this admission.   I listen to “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama” in the car and even in the church office, occasionally.   That’s my present practice at age 61 at my current level of maturity in Christ.   And, thanks be to God because of His faithful activity in my life, I think I’ve grown much toward Christlikeness over the years of my walk with God. Now, I want you to note that I deliberately used the word admission rather than confession because I don’t regard these listening choices as a stubborn act of rebellion against God, or secret sin I’m trying to hide from the world. My conscience is clear when I put on the headphones, turn up the volume and risk damaging my eardrums.   This is my “jam” like we used to say.   I do the same with Beethoven’s Fifth by the way. The journey (I listen to them too) I’ve traveled to get to this place where I enjoy every second in the “Free Bird” guitar and drum marathon, has been one of extremes.    On the one