STOP THE HATRED

I’ve been around long enough to remember a time in the Deep South (and the not so deep as well) that men of different races couldn’t eat together at the same restaurant.  They couldn’t drink from the same fountain or use the same toilet. Their children couldn’t go to the same schools. The city bus was segregated: white in the front and

black in the back.  Their families couldn’t even go to the same church together.  Thank God those days are behind most of us.

Now I see history repeating itself, but in a different way.   Men and women of different political persuasion cannot at all mingle.  Those of the “one party” won’t serve those of the “other party” in their restaurants.  Walking the same street as the “other party” just may deserve some harassment.  In some instances, the two parties can’t attend peacefully or speak freely at the same college.  Riots have followed such attempts.

            Beforetime, it was over race and now it’s over which political party you are affiliated with.  I wonder how many politically intolerant people were in church last Sunday or at Mass on Saturday.  Probably more than you might expect.  Are we churchgoers, despite our racial or political differences, ever going to love God with all our being and our neighbor as ourselves?  Will we ever learn that when we serve people we at once serve God?  Possibly not, but the one thing we all will do is bow our knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. 

Matt 25:34-36

Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Those listening asked the Lord when all these things happened to Him.  He answered that when they did such as this to the least of those his suffering brethren they did it unto Him.  The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof: share of its abundance with others no matter their race, political preference or any other difference.  Christ died and was resurrected for every man: share that manner of love indiscriminately.  While we were yet sinners Christ died for you and me, no matter our race or politics: be ye reconciled to God and stop the hatred.

Carl Dean Hewett

August 22, 2018,