Brody's Scribbles... A Guest Editorial From John Silby

Photo Courtesy of John Silby

Love...or hate? 
 

By John Silby (Melbourne, Australia) Oct 30 | It was October 1998. The TV evening news carried a report of the funeral of Matthew Shepard. As family and friends gathered around his grave, in the background a group of people held up placards reading, “GOD HATES FAGS” and “FAGS DIE GOD LAUGHS” among other similar messages. I was appalled and saddened. That anyone would dare to intrude in this way upon a family’s grief over the loss of their son and brother through a brutal murder beggared belief. As if that wasn’t insensitive enough, these gate-crashers claimed to be Christians, believers in Jesus Christ, who gave his life that the world might live. Why were Christians behaving in such an unloving way, using such derogatory terms, and promoting a very wrong message?   

God doesn’t hate anyone, and he doesn’t laugh when someone dies. The Bible tells us two things that stand out to counter the arguments represented by those placards:

First, God loved the world so much that he sent his son to be a sacrifice for the world’s sins, taking the place of the Old Testament sacrifices observed by the Jewish people (John 3:15-18). Please don’t misunderstand: God most definitely hates sin - but that doesn’t mean he hates the person who commits the sin. There’s a huge difference, and the message of hate implicit in those placards ignores that fact.

• Second, there is much rejoicing in heaven when a sinner repents and is accepted as a daughter or son of God (Luke 15:3-7). The corollary to that is that God is saddened whenever a person dies not having accepted his invitation to repent. He doesn’t laugh; he weeps.

 

That small group of protesters at Matthew’s funeral changed the way I think about gay people. Whether homosexuality is sinful or not, that approach to the issue is wrong. It’s divisive, confrontational and counter-productive, and it sadly and conspicuously lacks the love that Jesus himself showed whenever he dealt with a sinner, Yes, he confronted them and challenged them to repent - but he did it in a way that made the person consider his words and examine their own position, not recoil in distaste and brand him a crackpot. It was the religious leaders of the day who did that - not the people to whom Jesus ministered. Moreover, that approach violates the biblical principle that we are all made in God’s image. How can God hate what he created?

As I grow older, I appreciate more and more the values passed on to me by my parents. They taught me to respect everyone and to be tolerant and empathic towards those who are different. That’s entirely biblical and in line with the teaching of Jesus. Take this exchange:

The Pharisees [the religious leaders] got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:34-40).

The Jewish people observed the ten commandments and heaps of other laws set out in the Old Testament. Yet, Jesus summed up the whole body of the law in two short sentences - essentially, “Love God, and love your neighbour!” In loving God we will find ourselves living according to the principles he’s laid down in the Bible. God expects a lot of us, and he expects us to face up to the consequences when we don’t live up to those expectations. He’s strict, but he’s also loving, compassionate and fair. In loving our neighbour we will extend God’s love to those around us, because “neighbour” in this context means, simply, “everyone” - not those we like, not those who agree with us, not those who fit our understanding of what’s right, but everyone.

The US Hate Crimes Bill is now law. It’s sad that it was even necessary, when Jesus laid down the original version about 2,000 years ago! But, then, I guess he was a victim of a hate crime, too - he was killed by the establishment because he claimed to be the Son of God, and he preached a message the leaders of the day didn’t want to hear. I hope and pray that more and more people in the US and elsewhere will come to believe in his message of love.

John Silby is a net author writing under the pseudonym "Alienson." He lives near Melbourne, in Victoria State, Australia.  From John's 'About Me' page on his website, Alienson.com:

I am a (very) middle-aged Australian dad of two sons and two daughters, one foster son, two daughters-in-law and a son-in-law. My foster son and his wife have two beautiful daughters. I live on the northern fringe of Melbourne, a city of three million people and the capital of Victoria; the kids have spread themselves around Victoria and Queensland.

I hate to see people hurting, particularly kids, so when I read of the problems that some young people—particularly gay and lesbian teenagers—face, it got me thinking. The suicide statistics for young people are alarming, and gays and lesbians are over-represented in those figures. I have always loved writing; perhaps I could write a story that would encourage a person thinking about suicide to reconsider. Because I suffer from depression, and have many times felt like taking my life, I would be writing from experience. Black Dog is the result. If it helps even one young person it will be worth the time and effort it took to write.

Why Alien Son? It's the title of an autobiographical work about a Russian Jewish boy growing up in Australia after his family migrated here in 1914. He was an alien in a strange land. I suspect that some of my readers feel like that at times, as I do myself, so it seemed an appropriate nom-de-plume.