Fr James Martin on Charlottesville

Here is another Facebook post by Fr. James Martin.  It is a very thoughtful piece, that speaks especially to Christians on the issue of tolerance and the tragedy of Charlottesville, Virginia.  You can find Fr. Martin’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/FrJamesMartin/

 (Facebook post 8/13/17)

How many white supremacists who were in Charlottesville consider themselves Christian? 

Probably most of them. But “supremacy” is the precise opposite of Jesus’s message.

In the Gospels, Jesus asks us to love one another, to place others’ needs before our own, even to die for one another. The idea of “supremacy" is absurd to Jesus.

Indeed, Jesus tells us explicitly that we are never to “lord” power over others, and that we are to be one another’s “servants” (Mk. 10: 42-43)

The idea that anyone is “less than” because of his or her race is likewise antithetical to Jesus’s message. For example, in his day the Samaritans were avoided, despised and even shunned by the majority of the Jewish people.

Yet Jesus not only speaks to a Samaritan woman, and reveals his divinity to her; but he makes the hero of one of his most well known parables the “Good Samaritan.” (Jn 4; Lk 10)

He even encounters a Roman centurion, someone completely outside of his religion, speaks with him, heals his servant, and praises his faith (Mt 8:5-13).

So for Jesus, there is no “us” and them.” No one should be made by the community into an “other,” as white supremacists do to non-whites. There is only us.

More basically, racism goes against everything that Jesus taught. It promotes hatred, not love; anger not compassion; vengeance not mercy. It is a sin.

So “Christian white supremacist” is an oxymoron. Every time you shout “White Power!” you might as well be shouting “Crucify him!”

And any time you lift your hand in a Nazi salute, you might as well be lifting your hand to nail Jesus to the Cross.

And lest you miss the point, your Savior is Jewish.