Fearing Bravely by Catherine McNiel

Author:Catherine McNiel [McNiel, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Living / Spiritual Growth, RELIGION / Christian Living / Personal Growth
ISBN: 9781641583282
Publisher: The Navigators
Published: 2022-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

Lohfink goes on to say that in telling this story the way he does, Jesus clarifies that the practice of caring for all fellow humans as neighbors—including strangers, even enemies—is inherently connected to loving God, one and the same thing.

The question of how we treat strangers is such a hot topic for social and political debate in our world today that it might be hard for us to remember who’s talking in this story: This is not a pundit or a reporter, not a conservative or a liberal. This is Jesus, the Son of God, from the right hand of the Father. Those of us who follow Jesus must take this seriously, regardless of the current political climate—and we cannot do it alone. The body of Christ is meant to be the community that cares for everyone inside the community—and everyone outside the community—as though they were our own family.

But is this commitment to loving strangers what we are known for?

In reality, many Christians in the United States are more likely to fear strangers than love them. In a recent study, PRRI reported that over 50 percent of white evangelical Christians considered immigrants a threat to their values and security, a far higher percentage than any other religious affiliation, and nearly twenty points higher than the population as a whole.[2] When asked to describe their beliefs about immigrants, nearly half of evangelicals saw recent immigrants as an undesirable drain on economic resources. The majority of Americans in every demographic support welcoming refugees (a different legal classification from immigrants) into the United States—except for white evangelical Christians. Instead, the majority of white evangelicals favor preventing refugee resettlement in the USA.[3] When asked what one factor influenced their thinking on these matters, only 12 percent of evangelicals cited Jesus or the Bible and only 2 percent cited their local church community or teaching. Only one in five evangelicals reported that their local church had encouraged them to reach out to immigrants in their community at all; the rest had never heard such a thing mentioned at church.[4]

I wonder: If we asked Jesus how to gain eternal life, what parable would he tell us today?

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