Mississippi makes the news again. My home state has a particular talent for making a real splash in matters of intolerance and hatred. The story of Itawamba AHS canceling prom to keep out one gay girl and her girlfriend has hit the national news today. It hasn’t escaped attention that Morgan Freeman’s Prom Night in Mississippi that exposed the little habit of sending the black kids across town to have their own separate prom came out only…um…last year?
Mississippi is still struggling with the idea that God won’t strike you dead if you see an interracial couple out in public without harassing them or shunning them in some way. It isn’t nearly ready for the thought that gay people might actually be included in all those children God loves.
This, however, is something else even for Mississippi. It’s cruel. It sets a young girl up to be brutally mistreated by resentful classmates. Talk all you want about morals, but cruelty is never a moral choice.
There was a time when honest Christians honestly believed that God wanted black people to be slaves. Now the idea seems absurd to any honest person of any belief system. Still, there are honest Christians who honestly believe that God wants gay people–created by God who they are and as they are just like everyone else–to be perpetually persecuted. This too is changing with the times, and change is always the thing people fear the most.
There’s a line in the movie “Oh, Brother Where Art Thou?”: “Is you is or is you ain’t my consituents?”
The Bible says a lot of things, many seemingly contradictory, but the idea that God is love is both clear and pervasive. When I see people taking a stand for hate in God’s name, I think “Is He is or is He ain’t Love?”
Well…?
He IS love…red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight…Jesus loves the children of the world…ALL of them!