Jesus Loves The Little Children (wait, not you)

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and Yellow, Black and White
They are precious in his sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

Singing this song is one of my earliest memories from growing up going to Sunday school. It taught me that all of us, no matter what we look like or where we come from, are loved by the God we were gathering to worship twice on Sundays and Wednesday nights. 

This song taught me that I should accept those who might look differently than me (which, growing up in a small, whites only town in Indiana, was a rare occurrence, to be sure), because GOD loved them. 

That was the point, wasn't it? That if God loved these people, then we should, too?

This week we saw a story about the popular, and notoriously anti-LGBTQ, food chain Chick-fil-A and the reaction some on the right had when discovering Chick-fil-A's website included a section on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and that they had "just hired" a VP of DEI. (After a quick google search, we learned that Chick-fil-A's VP of DEI, Erick McReynolds, had been serving in that role since November of 2021. But, "he'd just been hired" was fuel for some of their initial outrage.)

Included in this outrage was Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk who referred to the move as "part of the blueprint to pressure and demonize right wing companies to make them either go bankrupt or become one of your own. Look at Chick-fil-A. A decade ago the left HATED Chick-fil-A, they wanted to crush them. Now, Chick-fil-A is bragging about DEI statements and groveling for New York Times support.”

It's amazing how quickly previous supporters of Chick-fil-A turned on them because of three little words:
Diversity. Equity. Inclusion.

The intention of DEI training is "not to force anyone to change their mind or opinion, but to help build awareness of unconscious bias, cultural competence, or other barriers to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. It can also motivate positive behaviors and attitudes and foster an environment where workers can feel comfortable bringing their full, authentic selves to work."

In other words, DEI training is rooted in that song I sang in Sunday school oh so many years ago, which supports the belief that ALL of us are precious and worthy of love. Even though that little song only mentioned the color of our skin, I don't believe we were meant to stop there. Because, it's not just the color of our skin that we can choose to focus on as "different", but also our gender, our sexual orientation, our religion, our place of birth (not an exhaustive list).

None of these things should stand in the way of being loved... of being precious in our sight.

And yet, we have one Party wholly committed to restricting, outlawing, and demonizing the mere existence of a group of people that the Jesus of the Bible, the one I grew up hearing and singing about twice on Sundays and Wednesday nights, would have found to be precious in His sight. The Jesus from my childhood would not have boycotted them or directed anger and violence their way.

He would have loved them.

So, who are we to judge another human and deem them unworthy of our love? Unworthy of a place in our society? Unworthy of living their lives free from the anger and violence currently perpetrated against them in the name of this loving Jesus?

Try singing that song one more time. But, this time, listen to the lyrics, not filtered through your learned biases and prejudices, but with the Spirit of love and acceptance.

The way we were taught to sing it twice on Sundays and Wednesday nights.