I Wonder if I Could Respond Differently?

Last week, a well known Christian leader responded to the horrific killings in Chattanooga by denouncing all Muslims, stating that "Every  Muslim that enters this country has the potential to be radicalized" and calling for the United States to "stop all immigration of Muslims to the United States." More than 160,000 people liked his comments.Tonight, I will take my son Isaac to one of his weekly soccer games, where he plays with and against many Muslim kids, whose parents sit on the same sidelines as me, cheering for their kids, while I cheer for Isaac. I wonder how much courage these Muslim families need to muster up in order to go to a soccer field filled with mostly white families, many of whom most likely affiliate at least on some level with Christianity? I wonder what they tell their kids when they come home crying, after being made fun of, bullied, and rejected? I wonder if anger and fear bubbles up in the hearts of those parents, as they hold their kids close, as they console them? I wonder what they think of Christians like me?I wonder how many Muslim women who wear hijabs lower their eyes when they pass by people like me, not necessarily out of modesty, but because they so often see anger or fear reflected in the eyes of people who look like me, in super markets, in traffic, and even on soccer fields?I wonder if this Christian leader realizes that he is attempting to fight extremism with a similar kind of extremism?I wonder if I could respond differently tonight at my soccer game, with those beautiful Muslim families?I wonder if I could represent a different kind of Christian, one who doesn't simply walk past the person who is wounded by the side of the road, but who stops to help them heal, and be on their way in peace, at great personal cost to myself?Extremism in any form expresses itself through violence and is blinded by fear. Extremism draws strict boundaries by generalizing (all Muslims, all gays, all republicans, all democrats, all evangelicals, all women, all men) and stirs up mob action based on a perceived threat to their own group's self interests or freedoms.Inclusivity in any form expresses itself through compassion and understanding, and is enlightened by love. Inclusivity draws a wider and wider circle by taking the time to get to know individuals, and stirs up redemption and reconciliation based on the understanding that God so loved the entire world; all of us, everywhere.Jesus always seemed to find creative ways to include many different kinds of people. His own band of twelve disciples included a couple of zealots and a tax collector, sworn enemies of each other. A prominent Pharisee named Nicodemus was one of the few stragglers left at the very end, and he offered to help when Jesus' body needed to be taken down off the cross. Women with horrible reputations made lavish, unreasonable demonstrations of their love for Jesus, and it didn't seem to bother him in the slightest when religious leaders smirked and wondered how it was that these women came to love Jesus so much. If he were around today, I'm convinced the story of the Good Samaritan would be the story of the Good Muslim, or the Good Lesbian, if indeed the audience he was speaking to were good Evangelicals like me and my friends.This is a not a naive call to a blind love which says that everybody is the same, and that we all believe the same things. We are not the same, and we do not all believe the same things. But it is a call to sniff out ignorant extremism in yourself and at least attempt to replace it with a growing inclusivity to the individuals that you meet, at soccer games and at Costco, who are different from you. If you believe that God is not just for you and yours, but for the entire world, then is it perhaps time to join in God's great adventure of making all things new, even today, even right in this moment?In it together, my friends.Photo Source