A Call to Believers

This is a public service announcement to Believers!!!

But who are these Believers, you ask? And in what do they believe exactly?

This is a public service announcement to Believers be addressing those that adhere to the same tenets as the speaker. Or maybe not...

For example, if we are addressing Christians exclusively, do we all believe the same doctrines? Absolutely not. And yet, we would certainly assert that our collective group constitutes Believers. The meaning of the label, Believers, is simply understood and not questioned.

Muslims also address the congregation as Believers. Do all Muslims embrace the very same beliefs? Absolutely not. Clearly, there must be certain fundamental principles that allows for cohesion within the larger body. These fundamental beliefs provide our platform to comfortably assert we are Muslim Believers. In essence, the need for unity within the faith requires that we overcome our less significant differences.

Likewise, as Americans, what allows us to claim this American identity given that we have such divergent backgrounds? Some of us come from a lineage that built the early foundations of America, fueling the economy through labor in the field as well as the factories. Others arrived generations later bringing new cuisines, music, religions, needed labor and faces.

Yet, no one is more American than the other.

So then we are compelled to conclude that all American citizens fall under the general category of Americans in spite of our differences.

Some might argue otherwise, however. There are those who believe that the differences allow more privileges or status for some over others. And we can certainly choose to allow those differences to further entrench us into the failed notion of “us” and “them”, continuing the insatiable desire to hate “thems” because they are different.

Our current national movement against systemic racism has peeled back layers of failures arising from our hate. Some will see and change while others will see change as incomprehensible, destabilizing. I predict that those who refuse change will be left behind-one day standing alone.

Consider how Jesus Christ destabilized the existing power structure of hypocrisy and classism. The burdensome rules of the religious elite did not reflect the love of God as much as they reinforced traditions that humiliated the poor and reinforced the status and power of a select few. The religious leaders of His day resisted his teachings and tried to strategically undermine him.

Attempting to test Jesus, a Pharisee asked him,

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (New International Version, Matthew 22:36-40)

Can we really claim to be a “Believer” if we despise our brother or sister? Differences among believers are simply irrelevant within this context. After all, loving God and loving our fellow created beings are the two greatest of the commandments.

And so, we end where we began.

This is your Public Service Announcement: Love your neighbor just as much as you love yourself. This most certainly applies to your fellow American whose differences are only as relevant as your imagination demands.