Enough Is Enough

Like many others in my social media circles, I am sick to death of news about Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who now sits in jail for refusing to comply with federal law and issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. I am likewise sick to death of all the Facebook memes and Twitter posts that try to undermine Mrs. Davis by mocking her several marriages or her personal appearance.

What most sickens me, however, is that Americans have elevated the emotionally fraught case of Kim Davis' dereliction of duty as equal in worthiness with the international humanitarian crisis that resulted in a refugee family washing up dead on a Mediterranean shore. This is what I mean:

Some readers no doubt will find the juxtaposition of these photos offensive. And that's a good thing, because until and unless we can see this little boy and all like him as human beings in need of aid, we will fail to be true followers of Christ. We will waste time and resources, perhaps even endanger our very souls, by paying more attention to the bigotry of Kim Davis and others like her than to the millions of people around the globe fleeing conditions of war, poverty, hunger and other oppression.

As I surveyed Internet news to find selections for this week's issue, the refugee crisis in Europe and the Kim Davis debacle appeared more often than anything else – yes, sports fans, even more than Tom Brady winning his appeal in "Deflategate." The contrast between suffering refugees and a public servant refusing to do her job sent me to my Bible for comfort at the blatant human cruelty displayed this week. Unfortunately, this week scripture was not comforting, for my memory and my Bible kept leading me to uncomfortable passages such as these:

"Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,

   vanity of vanities! All is vanity."

– Ecclesiastes 1:2 (NRSV*)

"I hate, I despise your festivals,

   and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings,

   I will not accept them;

and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals

   I will not look upon.

"Take away from me the noise of your songs;

   I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

But let justice roll down like waters,

   and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

- Amos 5:21-27 (NRSV*)

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.  But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith."    – James 2:14-18 (NRSV*)

These are but a few of the scriptural passages that consistently show God's demand for human respect and care and justice – far above our self-righteous, self-centered displays of faith in the idols we have elevated above God.  Some may say, "We should be ashamed of ourselves," but even that supposed confession keeps the focus on us instead of on those who most need our care. Shame is a valuable emotion only to the extent that it motivates us to change our behavior.

For you see, what most afflicts me at this time of life as a follower of Jesus Christ and a chronicler of religion is this: The world desperately needs us to bind up its wounds, to stand up for human dignity, to demand justice for all in the face of rampant bigotry, and to reconcile and make peace among opposing forces. Yet we piddle away our days arguing in our religious institutions over who's in and who's out, what's sin and what isn't, who gets the power and who doesn't.

Enough, I say. Enough! For that little boy lying dead on a Mediterranean beach. For a deluded county clerk in Kentucky who refuses to do her job because of bigotry, not faith. For the hundreds of refugees huddled in a Hungarian train station. For the thousands of violent men worldwide who think that guns give them power and respect. For the millions of American children living in poverty, and for their mothers struggling to feed them. For all the oppressed, and for their oppressors as well.

To my mind, the only answer to these evils is the love of God proclaimed by Jesus, the Christ. If we say we follow Jesus, then we must do what he commands: Love one another as he loves us. Otherwise, we are liars and cheaters and thieves and murderers who deserve the hells we create for ourselves.

*Scriptures quoted from the New Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible, copyright 1989 by the Religious Education Committee of the National Council of Churches USA. Used by permission.

A veteran journalist specializing in religion and a certified spiritual director, Cynthia B. Astle serves as coordinator of United Methodist Insight.