New Robe

In Proverbs 10, we can see the contrast between the ways of God and the ways of the world, between
His concept of love and the hatred that is generated in the hearts of human beings:
11 The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.
12 Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.
13 Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning, but a rod is for the back of one who has no sense.

1st Peter 4 tells us that love covers a multitude of sins.  In other words, while the world would perpetrate bitterness, resentment, and revenge, God calls us to be forgiving people, people who show mercy and seek peace.  We have to guard against the vestiges of hate in the human heart and be careful to allow the love of God to motivate our thoughts, actions, and words.  We can be people marked by love, but who are willing to speak God's truth and live His way, motivated by His love for us and all humanity.

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We hear a lot about love and hate these days, and the Bible has much to say about God's viewpoint on those matters. 1st John 4 states:
19 We love Him because He first loved us.
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

The anniversary weekend of the Charlottesville racial tensions last August has come and gone, and while there was a great amount of anticipation about what could transpire, the facts seem to point to a dramatic lessening of the display of racial hatred by white supremacists.  When the organizer of last year's "Unite the Right" rally couldn't get a permit in Charlottesville, he took his show on the road, to the nation's capital, but was unable to mass a crowd, with reports that there were less than 50 people showing up.  Reports indicate that the counterprotestors gathering in Lafayette Park in Washington, DC outnumbered the so-called "Unite" crowd.

Meanwhile, in Charlottesville, the police presence was strong, but it was Antifa, the so-called "anti-fascist" group that was causing trouble.  In fact, according to the Daily Caller website:

NBC reporter Cal Perry went to Charlottesville, Virginia, to document protests ahead of Sunday night’s planned “Unite the Right” rally — and in spite of the fact that white supremacists had not yet arrived on the scene, approximately 200 Antifa-led protesters soon turned on the police and reporters.

The group, which has acquired a reputation for wearing masks when it goes in to stir up trouble, verbally attacked police and physically attacked Perry.  Newsbusters took NBC to task for not showing footage of the attack on its Sunday Today program.

There was only one permit for a public gathering in Charlottesville this past weekend, according to Baptist Press, a worship service that was organized by a number of area churches.  The article states:

Among the weekend events slated in Charlottesville, a multiracial coalition of evangelical pastors has scheduled a community worship service Sunday night, with a theme of "better together" and a focal Scripture of Psalm 133:1. The only requirement for individuals appearing on the worship service's platform is that they affirm salvation is found in Christ alone.

Some 20 churches of various denominations and ethnicities are scheduled to participate.

"People are asking, 'How in the world did you get a permit for'" a worship service at Charlottesville's downtown mall, said Kyle Hoover, a local pastor who helped found the coalition of ministers organizing the service. "We're really viewing this as a God-ordained opportunity for the church to finally come to the downtown mall ourselves and for us to gather and to proclaim what we believe is right and what we believe is wrong, and to speak about matters of human dignity, but through the lens of what God's Word says about that issue and what the Gospel speaks about racial injustice."

The American Thinker website had some pictures of other clergy who were involved in trying to keep the peace in Charlottesville.  Bishop Harry Jackson was on hand to speak to a prayer group that marched from the Rotunda at the University of Virginia to the site of Heather Heyer's death last year.

But, I will give NBC some credit for a touching story that illustrates life-transformation through Christ.  The story documents the change that occurred in the life of Ken Parker, a former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, who went to last year's rally in Charlottesville.  The story says:

Parker said he felt the need to be in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017, to “stand up for my white race.”

“It was thinly veiled [as an effort] to save our monuments, to save our heritage,” he said about the rally. “But we knew when we went in there that it was gonna turn into a racially heated situation, and it wasn't going to work out good for either side.”

Last year, as the story is told, "he met a filmmaker, Deeyah Khan, who was filming the event for a documentary on hate groups called 'White Right: Meeting the Enemy.'” He was struck by Khan's kindness toward him, and related, "She was completely respectful to me and my fiancée the whole time,” adding, “And so that kind of got me thinking: She’s a really nice lady. Just because she’s got darker skin and believes in a different god than the god I believe in, why am I hating these people?”

The seed had been planted, and then God watered it - bringing Parker and his fiancee together at a cookout with an African-American neighbor, a pastor, William McKinnon III - he says, "They sat down...and she said they had some questions for me, and I just asked them what were some of the questions that they had.”  Later, he invited the couple to the church's Easter service.  Parker then decided, as the story puts it, "he'd had enough."  He spoke before the church a month later, and then, as the article says:

On July 21, wearing a different kind of robe, Parker waded into the Atlantic surrounded by members of that same church. McKinnon embraced him, and then dipped his head down into the water to baptize him.

He wore the baptismal robe, rather than the robes associated with the Klan.

Parker took another positive step - he had his racist tattoos removed.  He told NBC: “I want to say I’m sorry. I do apologize,” adding, “I know I’ve spread hate and discontent through this city immensely — probably made little kids scared to sleep in their own beds in their own neighborhoods.”

I think there are some wonderful considerations for us here.  First of all, we recognize that the hope of the gospel supersedes the hate of the world.  Baptist Press reported:

Rob Pochek, a Charlottesville pastor who helped plan the community worship service, told BP "those who affirm salvation in Christ alone are the only ones who have the answer for our city."

"Our city has been looking in politics and in legislation and in rules and in government and even in police protection as a way to enforce racial reconciliation," said Pochek, pastor of First Baptist Church Park Street in Charlottesville. "The reality is that the answer for racial reconciliation is found in the Gospel of Christ."

We also recognize that the antidote to hate is not more hate.  While white supremacy and alt-right racism are deplorable, so is the rhetoric and violence on the left that was expressed over the weekend.  Ken Parker, the former Klansman, was not won by more hate, but by someone who reached out to him and treated him with kindness.

And, you have to be careful with use of the word, "hate."  Christians and Christian organizations are too often labeled as "hate" groups or "haters" just because they have a Biblical view of marriage. It's been said that the most loving thing you can do for a person is to tell him or her the truth - and that truth is found in God's Word.  We also have to make sure that we are not intimidated or fearful because of what people may think of us or say to us because of our Biblical views.  Ultimately, we must ensure that we are doing everything in love, the love of Christ.