A couple of weeks ago, a popular Facebook page published a post calling into question the godliness of two candidates running for local office, including stating the parishioners of Cal Hendrick’s church are on a “pathway straight to hell.” As a Christian I was deeply bothered, and for one of the few times in my life, I felt ashamed to call Odessa my home.
I will never believe that the way that we bring others to Jesus is through the threat of eternal damnation or picking apart someone’s existing church. As Christians, do we really think we will call others to Christ by opening the conversation with, “Have fun in hell, sinner.”
After reading that post, I quickly fell down an angry rabbit hole of emotions. Using Bible verses to fit a political narrative and to tear candidates down felt like the lowest form of cowardice. As a human, I’m inherently flawed and capable of sin. I’ll never be comfortable enough in my own shortcomings to sit in judgment of another’s sins – to condemn them to an eternity in hell. In fact, the Gospel of Matthew tells us in chapter 7 that if we’re going to point out the speck of dirt in our neighbor’s eye, we are to pull the entire plank in our own eye out first. Simply put: before we call out someone else’s sin, we need to be prepared to examine our own first. I saw none of that in this particular Facebook post. It was nothing but a character assassination with scripture used for window dressings.
But once my downward spiral slowed, I realized that the overwhelming majority of responses to that post were people who thought like me; people who were coming to the defense of those candidates, that church, and its congregation. My moment of shame and disappointment blossomed into a moment of pride, and I was reminded that the hearts of West Texans are blindingly good.
To my fellow Christians voting this election season, I have three things to say:
1) While we cast ballots to determine our leaders for the next however many years, keep in mind that our future is already secured by the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus,
2) Democracy dies when we can no longer have a civil conversation with people of opposing viewpoints and simply walk away once we’re done, and
3) Just like the popular Catholic Church hymn tells us, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
Meredith McKeehan
Odessa
