Last year, there was a women's march of historic proportions, but most of my Christian friends were not there. You viewed it as of "the Jezebel Spirit" and therefore, wouldn't be caught dead there. You looked down your noses at what you saw as a "gathering of the darkness" and looked forward to a time when "the light" would have their own march on Washington that would surely change everything.
While you were shaking your head over "women going down a wrong path," you shook out your knowledge of Jesus spending his time with "sinners and tax collectors" --Jesus spending time with "women gone wrong." You forgot how he derided the religious leaders of the day for thinking themselves above it all.
And what you refused to recognize was that the march was a joining of humanity against hate, against division, against the destruction of the planet. It was a joining together with "the least of these" who were terrified of losing their insurance, terrified by the nods to white supremacy, misogyny, and homophobia. You should have been there as Christ's representative to bring hope and peace to the terrified. Instead, you were content with Fox News commentary spinning it into something you could cheerfully condemn.
Yes, there were loud-mouths who were just as full of hate as what they were standing against, but that was just a small part of the march. If you had been there, you would have seen that.
So I'm challenging my Christian sisters to a new view this year--to look at the marchers not as "Jezebels" but as a mixture of people--men and women--who are hoping for peace, the same as you. They are not people to deride or shake your head at. They are not people to even pray for or try to save.
They are people to love.
Christians are called to be "in the world, but not of it." You've got the "not of it" down. Now, get in it.
