“Introducing Your Neighbors”
I received an email from my Mother last night entitled “Introducing Your Neighbors”. The email provided a link to a website that allows you enter your address, hit a submit button, and view all the registered criminals that live in your neighborhood. Here is mine:
Now I understand my Mom’s purpose in sending this to me was to allow me to know who is living around me and keep my family safe. However this email struck me differently, I found this sad and troubling.
The world loves to label people, especially those who have committed some great wrong, and were convicted and punished. We have created websites to allow “the good people” to track “the bad people” and treat them with contempt, fear, or complete disgust. At any rate it’s sad and proves that in the world there is no grace or forgiveness for those who get caught in sin.
“What about Christians?” “How do we respond?”
Unfortunately Christians are commonly the ones that perpetuate these types of movements, even if it is simply by forwarding the emails encouraging others to “be aware”. Making many Christians today look unlike Christians, or more like UnChristians.
UnChristians forget that Jesus defended the adulterers (Luke 8:3-9); the tax-collectors (aka thieves) and sinners (Mark 2:15-17), and even criminals on the cross (Luke 23:42-43). They forget that Jesus lived by what he claimed; “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). UnChristians tend to look a lot like the rest of the world, forgetting Christ’s example.
But what if Christians (Christ-followers) stopped using these criminal tracking websites to know who to be fearful of and began using them to “be aware” of who needs our prayers and our Love?
Well if we were to do this I believe that “Introducing Your Neighbors” would carry a different connotation; UnChristians would look more like Christ; and we would begin to emulate the example provided by Jesus himself.
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