Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong....

In the Tuscaloosa News on January 18, Robert Bentley, newly-elected governor of Alabama said,

But if you have been adopted in God’s family like I have, and like you have, if you’re a Christian and if you’re saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister,” he said.

“Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.

Wrong...wrong...wrong...wrong!  First, if the Holy Spirit lives within you, all people are your brothers and sisters.  Jesus preached and died for radical INclusivity.  If Bentley will read his Bible, he should remember that the first Christians were, in fact, Jews.  If Bentley will read his Bible, he should see that never once did Jesus require that people "accept him as their savior" before treating them as brothers and sisters.  In fact, if Bentley will read his Bible, he should see that it was in the treatment of disenfranchised people as brother and sister that people were compelled to listen to Jesus' message of transformation--all are loved by God.  

My faith tradition challenges me to practice radical inclusivity--even Muslim terrorists are children of God, loved by God.  God's heart breaks at the violence they enact, but God's heart is breaking listening to the Gov. of Alabama as well.  Peter and Cornelius are a great example of this call to live in God's radical, inclusive love.  (Grab that Gideon Bible and read Acts 10)  Peter learns "that God shows no partiality..."  Our call is to witness to the love we have experienced--Jesus death shows God's love for all the world, not just for those who "believe" in Jesus.  Those who "believe" and those who have experienced God's love and are compelled to share that love.  It is in no way about those who are "in" judging those who are "out."

"The believing Jews who had come with Peter couldn't believe it, couldn't believe that the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on 'outsider' non-Jews, but there it was..." (v. 46)  I'm sure Bentley would argue that Cornelius became "Christian," as a result of the interaction, and that supports his position of become-Christian-then-you-are-in, but Peter interacted with Cornelius as "clean" before he was "Christian."  The very act of being together--something that would never happen between Jews and Gentiles--was the proclamation of Jesus' gospel...the good news that all are loved by God.  Living that radical love to even the most unlovable is the power of the message.

If the news quoted me...
I am adopted into the family of God.  So are you.  Whether or not you know it, you are loved by God.  I will do my best to reveal God's love in the way I accept you, respect you, serve you, pray for you.  I won't always be perfect, but the God that loves us both will embrace us in our imperfection and re-create us every moment of every day until God's Kingdom is complete.