In these Holy Days of Lent, Ramadan, and with Passover coming soon, my mind and heart are troubled by how much violence happens in the name of God.
It is not a new phenomenon that in the name of God, horrors have happened. The Crusades were wars fought to convert the “infidels”; during the Inquisition, folks were tortured in the name of keeping Catholicism pure; smart, strong women were hunted and killed as “witches” both in Europe and in colonial Massachusetts. Africans were enslaved; Indigenous were slaughtered; land was stolen; theologies of Apartheid were created in South Africa and Jim Crow in the U.S.. Blacks were lynched and Jews were exterminated in the name of God. Queer and Trans people are banished and tortured in the name of God. Lies, deception, broken hearts, poverty, capitalism run amok, environmental raping and pillaging, all happen in the name of God.
In the name of God. Which God? Whose God? Does God want the death and destruction of people and the planet?
Related: Fierce Love: Finding God in ourselves, and loving her fiercely
Honestly, we don’t fully know who God is. God is a mystery that we can’t quite comprehend. Is there a God at all? I think so. I believe so. But to be honest, much of what many people call “god” is made up from the worst of our thoughts, fears, and projections. In other words, though some Holy texts say God creates humans in God’s image, humans also create god in ours.
Too often that made-up god is a bully, hates all the people we hate and will smite our enemies. That made-up god is on the side of the rich and powerful; the poor and disenfranchised be damned. In fact, that made-up god wants us to believe that the tragedies of poverty and sickness are the fault of the poor and sick.
I do not believe in that capitalist, fascist, xenophobic, white male god. I’m with Shug Avery in Alex Walker’s “The Color Purple.” We need to get that god off our eyeballs so we can see who God really is and discover what God really desires for us and the creation.
I preached a sermon last Sunday about the God I know, God who is Love. 1 John says this; I am not making it up. God is Love, and those who live in Love live in God and God lives in them. God is Love, and when we Love, we live in God and God lives in us. God is our dwelling place, our tabernacle and we are God’s dwelling place and tabernacle when we love.
When we love, when we really and truly love ourselves and our neighbors, we are love shacks, baby.
God is love, and God’s promises to us include peace, well-being, and an everlasting love. To imagine God as our faithful lover, to imagine God as Love is to shape our hearts to love each other. To imagine God as a hate monger is to give ourselves permission to hate. To imagine God as violence almost demands violence from us.
Jonathan Capehart and his producer, Michelle Cumbo, have been so generous to me over the years. Jonathan and I had a very frank conversation on politics, religion and Trump two years ago during Lent. Click the link, and tell me what you think.
What do you see when you hear the word, “God”? What image comes to you? A menacing force that lies, cheats and despises everyone who is not white, straight and rich? A mean daddy who will protect you and yours while destroying everyone else? Do you see a brown Jewish rabbi from Palestine preaching love, and healing the world? Do you see a gentle, powerful feminine spirit — Sophia — whose wisdom and breath cause peace and wellness? What do you see? Be aware of what you see. Look closely at what you see.
What you see matters. What you say matters. How we love matters.
Let’s do better. In the name of God.
In the name of Love.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is senior minister and public theologian at Middle Church in New York. Celebrated internationally for her dynamic preaching and commitment to justice, she champions racial equality, economic justice and LGBTQIA+/gender rights. Featured on MSNBC, PBS, NBC, CBS and NPR, she is the author of several books, including “Fierce Love” and the “Just Love Story Bible.” Countless individuals and communities have been inspired by Lewis’ transformative work on her podcast, “Love Period”; in columns and articles; and on stages, in churches, on the street and in digital spaces around the globe.