Somebody’s hurting my brother
and it’s gone on far too long,
and it’s gone on far too long,
yes it’s gone on far too long.

Somebody’s hurting my brother
and it’s gone on far too long,
and we won’t be silent anymore.

Yara Allen is powerfully singing lead, and I’m among the spontaneous back-up singers, echoing her lament. “Somebody’s hurting my sister . . ., ” we sing. “Somebody’s hurting our children . . .” Black and white, old and young, rich and poor, singing, clapping, and committing together, “We won’t be silent anymore.”

This Moral Revival movement, which kicked off in April of this year, will stop in over 20 states before finishing its first leg Nov. 2 in Milwaukee, WI. Led by the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, the Rev. Dr. James Forbes Jr., the Rev. Dr. Traci Blackmon, Sister Simone Campbell, and local leaders each host city, the Moral Revival is a call to action on social justice issues from economic freedom and education access to healthcare and equal protection under the law. It is a cry for the heart of the message of Jesus, to care for the poor and oppressed among us. It is a call neither to charitable giving nor to political loyalties, but to systemic repair–to changing the underlying systems of oppression and inequality.

I’m not sure how host cities were chosen, but as I looked at the list, I saw that many had been historic battlegrounds in the struggle for social justice. I drove almost four hours to the Charleston, SC event, the closest for me, and arrived early so I could visit some of the sacred sites in our nation’s history of oppression: The Hanging Tree on Ashley Ave., the Old Slave Mart, Mother Emanuel AME Church. I learned that Charleston was the largest and most active slave port in North America for over 100 years. I also learned that Charleston had one of the largest free black populations of any southern city prior to the Civil War.

The first shot of the Civil War was fired at Charleston ‘s Fort Sumter. Several Southern plantations are preserved and open to the public, some including slave tours. I learned that the real “Porgy” of Porgy and Bess fame was a Charlestonian. I had a delicious Southern lunch at Jestine’s Kitchen, named for beloved Charleston housekeeper Jestine Matthews, born in 1885, who lived to age 112. And I learned that Charleston was the city where leaders first gathered to plan the Moral Revival movement.

The Revival gathering was lively and welcoming. Despite wide diversity, there was no division, political, racial, or otherwise. We shared a desire to work together for a better nation. We were family. The three-hour service included clapping and foot-stomping songs, heart-grappling sermons by Dr. Forbes and Dr. Barber, and personal testimonies from local residents (including a member of the Fight for 15, an undocumented immigrant college student, a young trans man, a breast cancer survivor, and 2 others I’ll tell you about later). A few highlights that especially touched my soul:

• The family love. The extended arms and smiles and those who organized and led, the Asheville NC man seated behind me, and Lori who sat beside me. I’m pretty sure God chose my seat.

• Yara Allen’s powerful Micah 6:8 solo: “What does the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” This was indeed the question of the evening.

• Dr. Forbes challenged all of our self-righteous indignation, our attitudes toward those who think or vote differently from us. “God’s association, ” he said, “is a cosmic association. God doesn’t care for you any more than for them . . . This revival is not our party against theirs or theirs against ours, but a recruitment to join the Cosmic Association for the Elimination of Injustice Everywhere.”

• Danielle’s testimony of surviving a childhood where she and her siblings witnessed the constant physical abuse of their mother, and ultimately her murder, and how the system has failed them as they have spent the rest of their lives flailing in the trauma. All abused alcohol and drugs. Her brothers have flashbacks they cannot control. Her younger brother killed his roommate, and her older brother, a pastor, tried to commit suicide. These children and so many like them are lost in our systems, needing someone to come to their rescue and stand up on their behalf.

• Dr. Millicent Brown’s testimony of being among the first black students in 1963 to bring about desegregation in SC public schools, and the guilt she has carried with her since that time. She explained what she perceives as naivete in believing that changing the law could change the hearts. Until we are committed to love all children, we have not made progress from 53 years ago, says Dr. Brown.

• Dr. Barber’s reading of Ezekiels’ prophecy (22:27-30) “(Your politicians) say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says, ’ when the Lord has not spoken, ” and  “I looked for a man who would stand in the gap, but I found none.”  State officials, in response to the 2015 Mother Emanuel Church shooting that left nine worshipers dead, including senior pastor Rev. Clementa Pinckney, took down the confederate flag from the state house–a flag that should not have been there anyway, says Dr. Barber.  If they really wanted to honor the slain, why not make the changes they championed or further the mission for which they passionately fought?

• Dr. Barber likes to talk about hearts and defibrillators. “We don’t have a Democratic problem, ” he says, “We don’t have a Republican problem. We have a heart problem . . . nothing to do with left or right.” When someone’s heart stops, Dr. Barber says, there is hope if someone can get there in time with a defibrillator. The heart has to be shocked. We are called to be moral defibrillators–to shock the heart of the nation. Martin King had his day. Mother Teresa had her day. Dorothy Day and Mother Jones had their day. FDR and Abraham Lincoln had their day. God is calling for someone to stand in the gap now for your day and my day, to shock the heart of this nation with the power of grace and the power of mercy and the power of justice and the power of equality and the power of prayer. Will God say “I found no one”? 

The Revival organizers call those of the movement “Repairers of the Breach, ” (Isa. 58:12), the “gap standers” of Ezek. 22. Dr. Barber has called this moment in history the beginning of a Third Reconstruction. Indeed, while his movement has gained national attention, thousands of grassroots movements are emerging across the country, all focused on turning our national soul to a morality that looks like the heart of Jesus. Somebody’s hurting our brother, somebody’s hurting our sister, somebody’s hurting our children, and we won’t–we can’t–be silent anymore.

In North Carolina basketball country, we know that when someone says he’s pulling for ABC, that means “Anybody But Carolina.” Why? Because the team most likely to win is also the team most targeted by the opposition. (Yes, I have a slight Carolina bias, inherited from my daddy.)

More than a year ago, long before the Republican Party could have predicted who their presidential candidate would be, Hillary was the Democratic standout and the obvious one to beat. The Republican strategists, long before you and I were interested in this election, were devising a costly plan to take her down. ABH, you might call it. “Anybody But Hillary.”

In searching for and testing how to most effectively attack Hillary, two targets came to the forefront, pertaining to arenas about which most of the general population would have little knowledge except what they were told: Benghazi and email servers. All the strategists would need to do is tell us over and over that what she did was criminal and she’s a liar, until that becomes our main perception of her.

In Benghazi: eexactly what did Hillary do? What should she have done? It’s hard for most of us to say. And it’s easy to forget that, during the George W Bush administration, there were 13 attacks on embassies and consulates, and 60 deaths. Or that in 2011 Hillary, then Secretary of State, warned Republicans that their proposed budget cuts to her State Department would be “detrimental to America’s national security.” But we have been told so many times that Hilary failed Benghazi that it sounds reasonable to us.

And then the emails. According to Newsweek Magazine, between the years of 2003 and 2009, the Bush administration “lost” 22 million emails, many likely pertaining to the controversial Iraq War. While not condoning “lost” emails in either case, I think I can understand  how this might happen, and how you and I might make that same choice.

Let’s bring this down to a level we can understand. What if someone hacked into your personal or work email server, and all of your emails were now accessible to the public? Would you go in and try to delete before others found them? I would. My emails have no government secrets, but they are my personal communications, some with personal identifying information that could threaten my security, some with private conversations with friends, some with highly confidential work communication. Yes, I would delete.

And the private email server – The Bush administration used one of those too, set up by the Republican National Convention. Yes, the same party that has set out to convince us that Hillary is unfit to be president for doing the same thing.

Hillary was investigated and found not guilty of any criminal wrong-doing. Members of the party that brought on the investigation in an attempt to discredit her in the eyes of the public, now wish us to believe the investigation was rigged.

Many other attempts to discredit her have been tried. Her husband’s infidelity. Her religion (Yes,  she’s Christian). That as a lawyer she defended a rapist (She was a lawyer, folks. It was her job. Not a chosen case, but assigned to her).  I even read once that she missed Chelsea’s first day of school, making her not only an unfit president but an unfit mother. By all indications, Chelsea is a well-adjusted, intelligent, and promising young woman whose relationship with her parents is admirable.

Hillary’s opponents have long been digging through her past looking for anything that will smear her name. And this is all they have. Now, to give credit where credit’s due: they have made the most of what they had. They have successfully planted doubt, fear, and even hatred, in the minds of millions of voters.

Hillary Clinton is not perfect. She is human. I’m sure she wishes she had not used the private email server; and yes, there should have been more US forces on hand in Benghazi. On a more personal side, she comes across as strong and tough, which has served her well as senator, first lady, and Secretary of State and will serve her well if elected President, but I do wish she were just a little more personable, more genuinely magnetic, like her husband or Kennedy or Obama. So no, perfect she is not. Nor is any past Republican or Democratic president. Nor am I. Nor you.

But I like Hilary because she’s tough and smart. She has proven she can stand up through public humiliation, through the tensest of partisan opposition. She understands foreign policy. She understands diplomacy and how to interact with world powers. She knows what the presidency entails. And as the Obamas have said repeatedly, she is more experienced and qualified for the presidency than any other candidate of either party in our lifetime.

And that she happens to be a woman – I like that too. After years of “Anybody But Hillary, ” it may be hard for Americans to take seriously the first female nominee of a major US party. But we who follow the red letters of Scripture should look at Jesus’ interactions with women and see that to him there was neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female (Gal. 3:28). May we approach the election prayerfully and in a Christlike spirit, remembering the second greatest commandment–to love your neighbor as yourself, no matter which team she’s on (Matt. 22:39).

She was one of my best friends in the early years of elementary school. Those years were difficult for her though, because she was so different from the rest of us girls. There was nothing about her that looked like a boy, but it was obvious to everyone, including those who called her hurtful names, that she was a boy at heart. She always played with the boys at recess, and they accepted her as one of them; and she was just naturally boyish in ways that no one could have ever taught her.

I remember the day she confided something very personal to me. Her parents, who happened to be very devout Baptists, had talked with a doctor and then with her about the possibility of having sex reassignment surgery. They told her the decision was up to her, and ultimately she chose against it. I remember thinking even at that young age that that was too personal to be sharing with me or anyone else. I shared it with my parents, whose reaction was sympathetic and similar to mine, and I never told anyone else.

An editorial in The New York Times  this week labeled NC a “pioneer in bigotry, ” following the actions of our state legislature this week. Indeed it seems we have reached a new low, not only for NC, but for the entire nation. No state has ever passed legislation that discriminates in this way, and not only does it discriminate, but it specifically forbids cities and towns within the state to make their own non-discriminatory laws.

Now the fallout has already begun, with large corporations and institutions speaking out against the action and announcing publicly that they will continue their own non-discriminatory policies, and outside agencies, including the NBA and film makers, threatening to exclude NC from future tournaments, movies, etc. I predict also a lawsuit is not far away, along with further embarrassing press about our divided state. I’m pretty sure this week’s ruling is not the final chapter of this story.

Still, we, the people of NC (and those across the nation who are watching us), need to talk. According to a still active poll by Charlotte’s WSOC-TV, asking only whether one agrees with the legislation or thinks it went too far, with over 3000 responders, the results are close to 50/50, likely divided along political lines, which is what keeps us disagreeing so adamantly about almost any issue that comes up. I think we are better than this, and smarter if we had legitimate information not meant to manipulate and use us.

If you miss everything else I’m saying here, please hear this: this legislation is not about bathrooms. The bathroom issue is real, but there are some fairly easy answers that could satisfy everyone, if that were what they were seeking. (See my previous blog.) This week’s actions are just another episode in a political game that’s feeding on the ignorance and fears of us, the voting public. These politicians have learned there are several tricks to keeping their constituents where they want them, and these two are among are the most dependable: 1. pretend it’s somehow related to Christianity,  and/or 2.  convince the people they need to be afraid of something. Most often it seems they combine the two.

Transgender people have existed forever, but, like in the case of my childhood friend, it’s a very personal issue, not one that’s often announced to those outside one’s most inner circle. Some have surgery as children and go into puberty and adulthood with the physical bodies that will become the only gender their adult acquaintances will ever know, with no question. Others choose that difficult transition in adulthood.  Still others choose to live their lives as the opposite of their physical anatomy without ever having the surgery. Surely they will have to have that conversation with a potential future life partner, but not with co-workers or casual friends. History tells us of many women who lived their lives as men so they could fight in wars, or attend college, or publish a book . . . Others might dress as the opposite gender, either regularly or occasionally, but continue to identify themselves with their physical gender.

Because the transgender issue is of such a private nature, it is no surprise that most of us, myself included, know so little about it, even to the point of thinking it only exists in one or two celebrity cases like Caitlyn Jenner; and it doesn’t help if the sources from which we get our news are associated with the political machine that wants to leave us frightened.

Because I have in recent years met some transgender people, including a few students who have privately asked me at the beginning of the semester to please refer to them as he, or she, or neither, I have made it one of my many goals to become more informed on the subject. I still do not really get it, but I do get that transgender people are no more predatory or dangerous than the rest of us, and that their lives have been difficult enough without our prejudicial treatment or legislation. I have also come to realize that I likely know several other transgender people, as do you, about whom I am (and should be) clueless.

I tell my students that ignorance simply means we don’t know, and all of us are ignorant about everything until we learn better. There is no shame in not knowing, but there is shame in choosing to remain ignorant while we speak out against something, especially something that discriminates against other human beings.

Here is a good rule of thumb in political and religious controversy: If it singles out a group of people as inferior to you, or less valuable to God,  think twice, and ask yourself if your fears are coming from a biased news source or from a friend or relative who listens to such a source, and then seek to balance it with what the other side is saying,  or better yet, if you claim Christianity, how does it measure up to Jesus’ example and teachings of unity, inclusiveness, and love for our neighbor? Politics is making us a more and more divided state and nation, but I can’t help but believe that we are better than this.

I never watched 19 Kids and Counting and never knew the Duggars existed until their scandal hit the news this week.

But I had my own Josh Duggar.

It was maybe 1969, which would make me about seven years old. The little country church that had long been a part of my family’s fabric was preparing for a new minister. Over a span of Saturdays, the women of the church cleaned the parsonage top to bottom, preparing it for its new residents, and we children were left to play outside. Hide-and-seek seemed to always be the game of choice, or at least the only one that survives in my memory.

“Josh” was older than me by several years, and he always motioned for me to follow him into the basement to “hide.” I can still see the concrete basement floor and the poles. I can still feel the dampness of the basement air. There he would expose himself, invite me to touch him, and beg me to do the same for him. Neither of those “invitations” was ever accepted. I was a strong and thinking child, and I continued to go to the basement with him because I was afraid my little sister would be his second choice if I refused.

It was a different time. Nobody ever talked about such things, and it would’ve likely gotten him and me both a spanking and then would’ve been “forgotten.”

But a victim never forgets.

I was one of the lucky ones. I had two Josh Duggars in my life, neither of which escalated to what I would call abuse. Yet, 40-something years later, I still can’t stand the sight or mention of either of these two men, and every Josh Duggar story brings back the sickening memories.

Recent studies have revealed shockingly that about one in five females and one in 20 males have been raped and/or violently sexually assaulted, almost half of them before age 18, and a large percentage of the perpetrators are trusted family members or family friends. That’s not just one in every five strangers out there somewhere. That’s one in five women you know.

We need to have this conversation. We need to have it with our kids.

Can God forgive a child molester? We Christians say yes. Can we forgive a child molester? We Christians say it’s possible. Can a TV network justifiably pull a show because the name of one of its stars has suddenly become synonymous with child sexual abuse? Absolutely. Thank you, TLC.

Probably like Josh Duggar, I don’t think my “Josh Duggar” became a child molester. I would guess he is sorry whenever he remembers the sexual exploits of his youth. I have never exposed him (no pun intended), nor do I have any such intention.

But hear me, and hear me well, all who defend 19 Kids: If this man and his family ever have a TV show or any other public venue through which they are advising their viewers on how to live sexually pure lives like they live, I will speak out, and I will speak loudly, because every choice we make leaves consequences, and often victims, who have lost much more than a TV show.

Before you shout again your disdain at the “liberals” for taking your show away, and before you again accuse those who disagree with you of being “unchristian, ” ask yourself quietly, what if your own child was one of the victims?

Then come to terms with the fact that there’s a one in five chance she will be.

Then pray to God for a heart of wisdom, discernment, and compassion, like the heart of Jesus. We must, we must, we must rescue our hearts and minds from the political bondage that has stolen our souls.

White friends in America’s Southland, we are living in a scary world. In any given month it seems there are fresh stories of black people marching in protest, Muslim terrorists attacking, non-English speakers crossing our borders. Anyone overhearing us can tell we are afraid – of being attacked, of being taken over, of losing the power that has always belonged to us white people.

Can we talk about this a little – just us white people – and analyze the whys, the hows, and maybe the what-to-do about our fears?

Let’s begin with a look at where our fears come from. With issues as huge and historic as this one, we won’t attempt to reach any one simple answer, but let’s look honestly at some of our collective reality.

First,  our fears were handed down from generation to generation. Most of us learned the fears of our parents who learned from their parents who learned from their parents. Almost all of us have KKK branches or roots in our family tree, known or unknown, and such history is never erased from our collective heritage. These fears are especially strong in rural communities where few outsiders are moving in. We naturally come to believe that if everyone around us shares the same fears then they must indeed be founded.

Second,  our fears are confirmed through the media we choose to follow. Most Southern white folk prefer conservative cable news, listen to conservative talk radio, and attend small Christian churches where the leaders get their fears from the same news channel and talk shows. All of this confirms our fears, and the religious component adds even more glue, cementing our fears into our view of God.

Why do these media outlets, talk show hosts, and certain renowned religious leaders confirm our fears? We Southern white people are such a large block of people that, as hard as it is for us to ever admit it,  we are being manipulated and used by many of these entities. They are getting rich and powerful by feeding our fears, and they have all learned that our Christian religion is so important to most of us that all they have to do is throw God into their mix and we will follow them anywhere. What’s sad, but not new, is that many of us will perpetuate these fears even when we do not benefit from them.

Third, we see legitimate news stories of violent crimes committed by black men or Muslim extremists. These frightening stories feed our already formed fears of all black people and all Muslims. The crimes are real, but do they really represent all black people, all Muslims.? It’s an easy leap to make, especially when our personal circles don’t include people from these groups. Most Southern white people can name several black people they have worked with or gone to school with and with whom they do not feel afraid, but stay with me now, and let’s be honest.

How many black/Muslim/Spanish-speaking people have eaten with you in your home? What if your daughter told you she was going to marry someone of this group? And here’s a big test: When you hear a tragic news story that someone in the community died in an accident, but the identity is not immediately released, are you relieved when you hear that it was (just) a ____ person?  (You fill in the blank.) If so, can we agree that we have some work to do?

If we label all black people as violent because of the violent acts of a number of misguided young black men, or all Muslim people due to the horrendous acts of a few extremists whom the Muslims do not claim as their own,  would it not be fair then to conclude that Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer are representative of all white people, especially to people who don’t personally know any white people? Or that Fred Phelps is representative of all Christians?

Despite the violent gang culture promoted by Hollywood and record labels,  southern black people are the most amazingly nonviolent group of people I know. Their hero was a religious man who preached that non-violence was the only way to make progress in the world. These are people whose Southern history has evolved from being owned as white men’s property to being “free” but not allowed to vote or to sit with white people on the bus or in the movie theater or to drink from the same water fountains, to humbly living and working among us, perceiving our unacknowledged (often even to ourselves) feelings of superiority. Dear white friends,  if black people (as a group) were a violent people, we (as a group) would have been in trouble a long time ago.

Black people are not a violent people. Nor is Islam a violent religion. Extremism in any religion is a very dangerous thing. Look at the Christian Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, Waco, Westboro Baptist Church . . . It’s a shame that such extremists ruin the name of entire religions that teach peace and love.

Similar to extremists,  youth of any race are an unsettled group as they try to find their way into adulthood. Yes, young black men as a group have issues with drugs and violence, but white youth are no less out of control. It seems accurate to say that many youth, regardless of race, are running loose in a state of temporary insanity.

So how can we best respond to our fears? The most difficult part is probably the acknowledgement that our fears, for many personal and cultural reasons, are exaggerated, and to privately evaluate whether we have adopted them from our parents, our husband, our community . . . Then we can walk away from racist jokes and conversations. We can vary our media sources, listening less to those that feed our fears, less to those that lean to one political side; and more to those attempting to be unbiased. We can seek out opinions of those who think differently from us, reading or listening to them,  not so we can argue them down and not so they can change our minds, but so we can understand their point of view.

And most importantly we can cultivate real relationships with people from our feared groups. Invite your black co-worker and his family over for dinner. Or your gay neighbors. Or your Jewish, or Catholic, or Hmong acquaintance. Counteract a lifetime of hearing what white people say about black people, and a lifetime of hearing what Christians say about Muslims, and actually get to know them for yourself. They are all real people, real individuals with their own varied fears, hurts, joys, and misconceptions, each as different as those of white people; and their fears of white people are far more supported than ours of them – through violent and racist history, and through the current Southern white weapons craze. Fear begets fear, and violence begets violence. The black people have chosen nonviolence. It’s time we did the same.

As Christians we believe that God is far greater and far more complex than our finite human minds can begin to conceive. We also believe that God sent Jesus to model for us how we should live as human beings. Jesus did not live in the South, nor even in America, but in the Middle East where there were cultural taboos against interacting with Samaritans, touching lepers, talking to women . . . But Jesus broke the taboos. Jesus condemned the churchy people who were more interested in rules and laws than in human beings. He preached unity for all his followers, and reaching out in active love to all people. And humility.  Humility–the hard first step to allowing God to change our own stubborn and proud minds.

Definitely Not:

Made up of millions of individuals of varying backgrounds, education, and experience, there are no two people in the Christian Church who agree on all issues.  There are, however,  some essentials, some non-negotiables, of the Christian faith that define it.  As Christians we believe (in both mind and soul) in God the Creator, Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected, and the Holy Spirit dwelling and working within us.  As Christians we strive to follow the life and teachings of Jesus, including what he called the most important commandment, to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourself.

Beyond the essentials of the faith, there is room for our diversity.  Some prefer classic hymns, others contemporary praise choruses.  Some prefer tradition while others seek new expression.  Some worship quietly, others with applause and verbal praise.  Some like vestments, some don’t.  Some read the Bible dogmatically, others contextually. Some can’t imagine life without technology.  Others believe it has ruined the world. Some are urban, some rural.  Some like dogs, others cats. Some are Republican, others Democrat. Some like to grill burgers, others are vegetarian.  We have different opinions about gender roles, divorce, hymnals, abortion, immigration, the color to paint the Sunday School room, and gay people; and there is room for us all.

Related: What’s the Difference Between Homophobia and Standing Up for “Christian Values”?

None of the non-essential disagreements are worth a church split.  But there is a catch.  If we are to live together as a Church, we must agree to respect each others’ differing opinions and to love each other despite them.

Definitely Yes:

If we cannot find that mutual respect, then, yes, the gay issues are important enough to allow a split.  Here’s why.  Because an estimated one in every 15 children born into our congregations is gay, * and we, the church, are oppressing them and harming their families.  And once they are old enough to make their own choices, we lose them entirely, along with a large percentage of, especially the younger generations, who see this misguidance of the Church and want no part of it.

Denominations and congregations are gradually coming to the realization that gay people do not choose to be gay any more than left-handed people choose to be left-handed, and that the Church has been wrong in labeling homosexuality a sin.  As with any change from traditional thinking, this is bringing division.  Congregations are losing members.  Denominations are splitting. And while this is tragic, yes, it is worth it.

For every single child who will not hear in sermons or Sunday School lessons that he’s destined for hell and that if he has enough faith, he can pray and God will make him straight; for every child who will not leave the Faith, believing she is a bad person and God does not love her; for every parent who will not hide in the double shame that her child is gay and that she failed as a parent; for every disciple whose heart is able to listen to others’ stories and love them unapologetically as God’s precious children, yes, it is worth even a church split.

Conclusion:

There are times when a particular issue is so important to an individual disciple, that he cannot live together in Christian love with those who see it differently. Whatever that issue might be, there are other congregations or other denominations where he might feel more comfortable in God’s service.  And as God’s family, whether we are those who leave or those who are left to grieve as others exit (I have been both), may the love of Christ cross the divide, and may we find peace in knowing that yes, it is worth it, and as painful as division always is, sometimes we cannot grow as Christian disciples without it.

Also by Kathy: I Tithe…but should it go to my local church?

Moravian motto: In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love.

Those who have been to war have often said that in the trenches all are equal.  All are brothers, looking out for each other and protecting each other without prejudice.  There is camaraderie in war that soldiers say cannot be duplicated anywhere else in life. In the trenches, no one in the unit is better than anyone else. Despite politics, religion, race or background, the unit is one. This is a snapshot of selflessness and humility.

Humility is the opposite of pride, arrogance, and egotism. Humility is mentioned around 100 times in the Bible, and perfectly demonstrated in the life of Jesus.  “For even the Son of man did not come to be served but to serve.” (Mark 10:45a)

Humility, like kindness and compassion, is not something we can acquire individually, apart from those around us.  Living humbly involves our attitudes toward every human being we encounter, and others will see our attitudes in the ways we manifest them through our actions, words, and tones.

The simplest and most profound definition of “humble” was one I heard in a children’s sermon this week. Humble means “not better than anyone else.”

Also by Kathy: I’m Humbled…Probably Not

Humble doesn’t mean we agree with everyone or believe that our choices and theirs, our religion and theirs, our politics and theirs are equal, but that as human beings we are of equal worth before God and we can live together in mutual respect.  If we acknowledge that we are all equally dependent on God’s grace, what a powerful statement is “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5).  Sometimes we have heard a verse so often that it doesn’t penetrate us, but think about this one before reading on.  Does this say that only those who do not think of themselves more highly than anyone else can receive God’s grace?

Let’s test ourselves prayerfully, with the realization that none of us has reached true humility, and with the goal of privately humbling ourselves before the Divine Potter and allowing our deepest attitudes to be remolded.

From the sentences below, choose all the sentence completions you personally and privately most need to pray.

I’m not better than _____ (political conservatives, political liberals, Republicans, Democrats, bloggers who think differently from me)

I’m not better than _____ (atheists, Baptists, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhists, Muslims, Mormons, Jews, Christians)

I’m not better than _____ (immigrants, Mexicans, black people, white people, non-English speakers, Middle Easterners, southerners, northerners)

I’m not better than _____ (those less educated than I, those more educated than I, my superiors at work, those who work under me)

I’m not better than _____ (women, men, gay people, poor people, rich people, homeless people, people on food stamps, old people, young people, disabled people)

I’m not better than _____ (adulterers, prisoners, drug addicts, racists)

I’m not better than _____ (Add your own . . .)

Now let’s select from our choices those that speak most loudly to us as individuals, maybe the ones we most wanted to argue against, and commit to pray every day for 2 weeks that God will mold us into the humble servant God’s Word calls each of us to be.  Let us pray to live humbly in the trenches of God’s service.

UPDATE: Fred Phelps passed away on Wednesday, March 19 at the age of 84