I Owe Jerry Falwell An Apology

I owe Jerry Falwell an apology.

Years ago I wrote Reverend Falwell a rather unsavory letter touting my liberal and compassionate views of humanity and blasting his shameful doctrines of fear and intolerance. I ended my letter with a warning that "he had better get used to people like me because someday he would find himself spending an eternity with us."

I've grown up quite a bit since that letter was written and I can now see that my own doctrines were just as shameful, and cloaked in a false view of tolerance and compassion. I have come to realize that I too will someday spend eternity with the likes of "them". With this new awareness I have been able to enter into the same type of love, tolerance, and compassion that Jesus had such a grip on.

I believe to truly be a people of peace we MUST dialogue with our enemies. We MUST be willing to find the good in all people and to celebrate their unique gifts they bring to our world. We must even try to see how we can take the lessons offered from our enemies and apply them to our own lives. This is essentially the message Jesus gave when he instructed us to love our neighbors as ourselves. I no longer think he was referring only to those neighbors who thought and felt as I do. I don't think he was referring only to those it was easy to get along with, or to those people I think I can "convert" to my views. No, Jesus was talking about the prostitutes, the poor, the lepers, AND the Pharisees and Sadducees among us.

And so, my letter to Jerry Falwell would now read something like this:

Dear Rev. Falwell,

I Apologize for the accusatory tone my last letter took. I have come to see that you are a man of great commitment to your beliefs. I am learning to live my beliefs as strongly, though they do differ from yours.

I admire how you have taken what you believe and put it into action. I really feel that if I can learn this lesson from you and do the same I will help make the world a different and better place. I'm sure you feel the same.

I am awed by your abilities to take what you see as right and true and good and share it with others. I have begun to do the same with what I see as right and true and good.

Thank you Rev. Falwell for all the lessons you've taught me.

Peace, Always Peace,
Jennifer

The Fires of Hell

At lunch with a colleague yesterday, we chatted about sermons as fires raged in the mountains just a few miles away. "What are you preaching about this Sunday?" I benignly asked. "The Fires of Hell..." he quickly replied. Like RUCC, the congregation he serves is open, affirming, loving, compassionate, looking for the best rather than expecting the worst in others. Such a sermon title is better suited to preacher Jonathan Edwards than to a couple of UCC pastors! Yet, as I drove home to the mountains last night, watching flames lapping up the timber to the north of the highway, I wondered how many days it will be until some religious nut accuses some group or other of having sinned to the point that God's anger is imagined as erupting in this fiery hell? Is that the kind of God who made the beautiful timber and provided homes for the wildlife in the first place? I think not...how about you?