Hate Reigns

Back in the mid-70s, I was a campus minister at the University of Tennessee Martin. Through the miracle of technology, a group of the students who were there the same time I was, have stayed in touch with each other and included me on their Yahoo group. There I learned that recently a student art exhibit had created a great deal of furor on campus and beyond. And now, this morning, I read about it in the local newspaper.

It seems that the student created art work from torn pages of the Bible and from torn bits of the Constitution and flag. I can well image the motivation of a college student to do such a thing. And I’m not expressing my opinion about the work. But this morning, the Yahoo users group email included one from the wife, Jenn, of the chair of the Visual Arts Department where the work was done. Jenn was very involved in the ministry when I was there—she was even the choir director the last couple of years.

Jenn reported that her husband had received hate mail and even threats of harm from people who don’t care for the student’s display. Needless to say, Jenn is afraid for her husband—and probably herself as well.

But there was another email from a member of the group, Jerry. Jerry was, back in the day, very outspoken about many issues and had a column in the campus newspaper in which he could express his views. Here’s a little of what he said in his note:

[There were] letters to the editor, suggesting that I should leave town, or that I would burn in hell for what I wrote, or how un-American I was. I remember there were phone calls and letters to the moderator and the Dean of Students, I think even [the Chancellor] got a couple asking that I be removed from the staff. The funny part was most people didn't have a clue what I looked like. I was just a name to them and a symbol, nothing more. Something they didn't understand and were afraid of. One of the reasons I started hanging out at the [the Interfaith Center] was that even after folks there found out my last name, they took me for what I was and respected my right to express myself and choose my own road to the Infinite even though we had many hours of debate, discussion and listening along the way.

I couldn’t be prouder to have been a part of such a place and to minister with such a group of students who would love Jerry even as they disagreed with him. But the letters from Jenn and Jerry also brought a wave of sadness over me. I was reminded of too many times that Christians couldn’t love and disagree, but felt they must hate, harm, even kill if they disagreed. Not just throughout history, but it seems even in this time of ours. Tolerance and forgiveness are not commodities in great supply among Christians, it seems.

Do your part today and tomorrow and into the future to reverse this terrible trend. Love as Jesus loved—even his enemies and even those who put him to death.

Peace,

Jerry+