Discovering Love: Real Christians, real Jews, real Muslims, real God-followers

Have you read comments on social media? They're pretty embarrassing for those of us who call ourselves God-followers or "spiritual" people. Some of that verbal abuse is deserved. I don't have to repeat it, because you've seen it and heard it.

There are people who claim to be Christian, but support the separation of children and parents in concentration camps, or call legal asylum seekers "illegal aliens" and demand that they be deported. But there are also people who, from the abundance of divine love in their souls, are doing the work of God.

The friend of a friend posted this graphic, criticizing people of faith (faith he doesn't have) for being hypocrites.

Our mutual friend chimed in, saying "I know groups in Arizona that are there to help asylum seekers who arrive. The good ones are definitely there helping."

She messaged me, saying "Totally mentioned you without saying your name."

Since her friend had a public setting on his Facebook post, I wrote an answer, which he immediately deleted, probably because it didn't fit his agenda that Christians ought to be "doing something" to back up their "pro-life" rhetoric.

Volunteers form a line of human shields along the police
caution tape, as they welcome refugees and asylum seekers
coming off the Homeland Security buses. How's that for meeting
the caravans with food, water, clothing, etc?

I work with an interfaith group that does what the meme said, and much more. The volunteer coordinator brought her fellow members of a synagogue or two; there are mosque members who serve the refugees on Passover/Easter and even during their own Ramadan fast, numerous Protestants (Methodist, Baptist, nondenominational, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, etc.) and Catholics (Catholic Charities welcome volunteers of many faiths); and yes, people of no religion who are compassionate, kind, and merciful.

The network of volunteers are not often seen or known to the public because of racist and militia vigilante types who picket, scream at, and threaten violence to our refugee guests and us. The Department of Homeland Security buses bring the refugees to host churches around the Phoenix-metro area, hundreds (perhaps thousands) per week, and drop them with court papers and ankle monitors. Out of our own pockets, and what we solicit from our home church choirs or Bible study groups, we provide showers and cots, hot food, bottled water and milk/coffee/lemonade at the meals, bags of snacks and fruit for travel to their sponsor homes across the country, diapers, clothing, shoes, a doctor if needed, etc.

Volunteer climbs over storage boxes to
reach bags of rice.

It's wide-scale, we have a charitable designation, and we're working with DHS. I'm told that there are similar groups in California, Texas, New Mexico, etc. But we have to do it quietly for security's sake. Some of us have had to be human shields to protect our guests (young parents with babies and toddlers) from screaming racists and vigilantes.

Beyond groups like ours, there are non-religious organizations that make water and food drops in the desert trackways to save the lives of migrants. Some are serving prison time for helping. I read a comment recently that bragged about "shooting holes in the water jugs to save the cactus and trees" rather than save the lives of human beings.

You want to know whose faith is real?
That is where the real Christians are, and not only Christians, but real Jews, real Muslims, real secular humanists: doing it generously, quietly, and secretly with open arms, open homes, open bank accounts, unlike Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr., spewing hatred for the refugees within our borders, and raking in donations by the tens of millions every year.

"To be sure, some evangelical leaders, such as Franklin Graham, the president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, voiced criticism of the Trump administration’s policy of separating asylum-seeking children from their parents at the border. Yet evangelical leaders have shown no signs of ceasing to give Trump their full support, while Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, both right-wing Protestants, defended his immigration policies as “biblical.” Indeed, in criticizing the “zero tolerance” policy, Graham deflected the blame from Trump and attempted to place it on former President Barack Obama." White evangelicals have turned on refugees, Foreign Policy

Volunteers from several religions bring food and drink
and other life necessities to a Baptist church where
Homeland Security drops 100 young parents and babies
several times every week.

"Graham’s willingness to abandon Christian principles when it’s politically expedient has cost the church dearly. It’s hard to think of a single prominent American Christian who better illustrates the collapsing Evangelical public witness than Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son. His commitment to the Christian character of American public officials seems to depend largely on their partisan political identity." Franklin Graham and the High Cost of the Lost Evangelical Witness, National Review

“Woe to you ... hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides. ... For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Matthew 23:23, 24, 27, 28 ESV

The "evangelical" Christian participation in politics is not furthering Christianity or the good news of God's boundless grace. It is a testimony to greed, isolationism, fear, arrogance, racism and nationalism, and discrimination. You, personally, may not notice it, but countless people around the world see it and are disgusted. Evangelical used to mean that we told the good news of God's love and salvation. Now, many of us avoid the negatively loaded word and call ourselves Christ-followers or God-followers.

What is the remedy? It's very simple.

You want to find a REAL godly person?

Roll up your sleeves, get involved in an other-centric project, and you'll see that godly people are all around you. No one will preach at another, ever, because we believe that God's Spirit is there in our midst.

When we die, there isn't some final exam on pre-millennialism, imputed or imparted righteousness, prophetic timelines, or a host of theology-speak terms. There are only a few requirements, and they don't involve the Ten Commandments or any other list. Through the ages, people of many cultures want to know how to be right with God, and what he requires of us. It's very basic, so everyone can understand. "Love one another."

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 ESV

And the people who God brings into his kingdom? The ones who fed and watered the hungry and thirsty, welcomed the foreigner, clothed the naked, visited the sick and the prisoner. Matthew 25:40

In other words, those who love and give up their own comforts sometimes, to help others.

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