by Reid Fitzsimons

"We saw one of these while joining  XXX's dad at his church, Spring Mount Mennonite. I'm sorry to learn that support for this sentiment is low among American evangelical Christians. To neighbors from East and Central Africa I would add: Bila kujali ninyi mnatoka wapi, tunafurahi ninyi ni majirani yetu."

Hi XXX:

I’m going to make a long commentary in response to the above brief comment you posted on Facebook regarding a sign you saw at a Mennonite church.

Hebrews 1:5 states: For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? The (unknown) author of Hebrews is referring here to Jesus, and using quotes from the Jewish Bible to establish that the provenance and authenticity of Christ comes from the Jewish fathers and, hence, offers Scriptural reassurance to Jews who had converted to Christianity. Looking at one source of this quote, that being 2 Samuel 7:13-14, we see:  ^“He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.” Again, this alone could reasonably be interpreted as referring to Christ. However, if the full passage is read we find: ¹² When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, ¹⁵ but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. ¹⁶ And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.^[c] Your throne shall be established forever.’”

To me this is clearly a reference to David/Solomon, not Jesus, and even if an argument is made that this passage is foretelling the coming of the Kingdom of Christ, it allows for the imperfection of Christ (“When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men…”). In other words Jesus could, potentially at least, be a sinner, which is doctrinally anathema to most Christians. So is the author of Hebrews attempting to pull a bait and switch, or did he or she truly believe 2 Samuel 7:13-14 pertained to Jesus? I suspect literacy rates at the time were universally very low and access to Scripture extremely limited, so who could disagree with the author of Hebrews 2,000 years ago?

Actually what I am writing here has little to do with theology. You well know I am a non-believer: I used to be a cynical and sarcastic atheist until well into adulthood when I converted to cynical and sarcastic agnosticism. I began to read and study the Bible in 2009 when I was invited to attend a Men’s Bible Study in South Alabama, the buckle of the Bible Belt, replete with rednecks, racists, and bigots, for whom “Jesus” is a 3-4 syllable name, or so the narrative goes. Curiously, what I discovered was kindness and fellowship among the multiracial attendees, even though they knew full well I was an agnostic Yankee and was not hesitant to share blasphemous observations such as I mentioned above re/ Hebrews.

Several years ago I was walking in Boston and came upon a classic old church that I noticed was Unitarian. Clearly displayed was a sign the stated, “All Are Welcome” amidst purple ribbon. I immediately suspected that all was not as it seemed. I think what our wealthy progressive Unitarian friends were saying was that 1) We welcome everyone as compared to those nasty hate-filled conservative evangelicals 2) What we really mean by everyone is people who identify themselves based upon self-limiting traits or behavioral inclinations, the purple suggesting especially homosexuals and 3) We are wonderful compassionate people because we put up a sign that says, “All Are Welcome.” I don’t know if a Unitarian service includes a time for prayer requests, but I suspect if I requested something like, “Please pray to end to violence and cruelty of abortion,” I would have worn out my welcome faster than an act of audible flatulence at the Royal Wedding.

I must admit I’ve come to be less moved by sloganeering as time moves on, wherever it appears- political campaigns, signs, posters, social media, bumper stickers; I’ve grown rather weary of the whole Making a Statement manner of guilt free living, where what counts most is how one feels. Or, more importantly, that one’s enormous sense of caring and compassion is on display to as many people as the sign location allows. Your sign- No Matter Where You Are From, We’re Glad You’re Our Neighbor- is right up there with such slogans as “The Children Are Our Future” and “Stronger Together.” The sentiment is fine and rarely will someone be found to disagree with it, but it does contain more than a hint of “us (good)” versus “them (bad).”   There are many of us  who receive affirmation of our goodness and compassion by contrasting ourselves with “them,” people who cling to a narrative that America is brimming with hate-filled Nazi racists. Indeed they do exist, but I suspect in such few quantities as to qualify for freak status. I’ve met a few in my life, the archetypical KKK moron, and they are sad and pathetic losers.

The social justice, pro-abortion (they always seem to be one in the same) Christians somehow interpret the words of Jesus as, “I say unto you, the finest act you can do in the eyes of My Father is DEMAND that Caesar give money to the poor.” Similarly, too many conservative Christians appear obsessed with the anti-works/faith alone ravings of Paul, using the words of Jesus merely as window-dressing: “The only thing that matters is your personal salvation and there is nothing you can do to earn it, so enjoy your free gift of eternal life and don’t be burdened with a sense you actually need to do anything.” I once reproached a sincere conservative Christian who was/is truly a decent guy over the idea that Christians don’t seem to go much beyond talking. He replied that Christians in general would readily respond to a Calling, but in the meantime… In other words, Christians are like every other self-involved materialistic American, except that they are waiting for their mission (that’s a reference to the movie Apocalypse Now); which typically seems to involve a lifetime of waiting.

During the years I’ve spent do-gooding in the Third World pretty much anyone DOING anything of meaning (as compared of a lot of TALKING) have been conservative Christians, just in much smaller numbers than there should be. Hence, I personally come down on their side as compared to our leftist progressive fellow countrymen/women/multi or transgender, who man/woman the barricades of the resistance then retreat to Starbucks to enjoy a cappuccino while reviewing and posting to Facebook the selfies they took of their struggle for the oppressed. If your experience with American evangelical Christians (“I'm sorry to learn that support for this sentiment is low among American evangelical Christians.”) is that they would NOT welcome someone as a neighbor based upon the geography of their origin, then shame on them- this is prohibited by Scripture and calls in question the legitimacy of their Christianity. Myself, I would rather enjoy reminding them of this fact.

Your Mennonite church sign is written in three languages- Spanish, English, and what I assume is Arabic; do you think there is significance to this? I’m not convinced the Spanish is grammatically correct: No importa de donde eres, estamos contentos que seas nuestro vecino. “Seas” applies to the 2^nd person singular familiar pronoun (tu’) in the present subjunctive form and I don’t see this as being a subjunctive clause. I would use the regular present conjugation of the infinitive verb ser (to be)- “eres.”

If the message of your sign could be extrapolated as follows, I would be impressed and embarrassed by my implication that it’s all talk all the time:

“No Matter Where You Are From, We’re Glad You’re Our Neighbor. In fact, this church alone is sponsoring five immigrant families consisting of 23 people. What they are not currently able to provide for themselves we are providing in full, and we don’t mean simply helping them navigate through the social welfare maze to obtain government benefits. We have decided to personally give up whatever wealth and comforts we enjoy as necessary to pay for their support. The only exception is that the kids are attending public school, but even there we fully cover the cost of their school lunches and don’t expect the usual subsidies. Our goal is to foster a belief in independence and self-reliance, and the dignity that is inherent to this, and that one day they will be in a position to help others in need. We Walk the Walk, and don’t simply demand that some else should solve problems.”

That would be a heck of a sign.