On Diversity, Tolerance and Inclusion

Yesterday's attack by a lone gunman at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. was a reminder of how anger and intolerance poison our common life together. On the radio this morning, someone was quoted as saying, "The fact that you need armed guards at the Holocaust Museum is proof that we need to have a Holocaust Museum." Amen.

In the past three months, I have visited that Holocaust Museum with my daughter, Katie, and a Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. The Holocaust happened, and will stand forever as a cancer on the human experience. Like a cancer, the human failures that allowed it to happen weave through human history in times of remission and recurrence, involving people of different races and cultures.

St. Paul understood the oneness of humanity that we see in Jesus Christ: There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28. As was the case with the institution of American slavery, during the time of the Holocaust and the years leading up to it, many supposedly faithful Christians stood idly by or actually participated in the culture of fear, hatred and cruelty that allowed it to happen. That same culture abounds throughout the world today. As Christians, it is our duty to stand up to it whenever we encounter it.

Pray for the guard who was shot and for his family and loved ones. Pray for the man who shot him, and for all those who share his view of the world. Pray that we may all claim the oneness that Jesus Christ offers us.

Have a blessed day! Your brother in Christ, Don+