By John D. Pierce
Having earned perfect attendance Sunday school pins as children and attended two weeks of Vacation Bible School each summer, many of us thought we had learned something about Christian values.
We memorized Bible verses like “Love one another” and “Be ye kind one to another.”
We sang “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.”
We weren’t told that as adults the whole notion of Christian values would change.
We sure wasted a lot of good Bible teaching to discover now that it’s OK to ignore, excuse or participate in a flood of falsehoods and fearful discrimination if such misbehavior makes us feel safer and superior, and results in the desired political power to resist social change.
Perhaps it was too hard to write a kids tune that rhymes with “judiciary.”
Our retirement funds would be overflowing if we’d received a small payment each time we heard or read Jesus’ account of the Good Samaritan. Sure seems to have little to do with being Christian in America today.
The greater concerns now are whether the man in the ditch holds the right doctrinal/political ideology and citizenship status. One point remains, however: Fear and self-righteousness still inhibit crossing the road.
And the ditch sure seems mighty wide between the Christian values our faithful teachers and preachers instilled in us long ago and what we are seeing and hearing expressed as political salvation today.
Fortunately, many of were given a pretty strong dose of Jesus during those growing years. So it’s not that hard to notice when he leaves the room.
Sure hope he comes back. Or we find our way back to him.
Otherwise, many will just wallow in these deceptive ditches of their own making.
Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and former executive editor and publisher at Good Faith Media.
