{"id":13403,"date":"2014-12-17T12:05:05","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T17:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/?p=13403"},"modified":"2014-12-17T12:05:05","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T17:05:05","slug":"love-worthless-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/12\/love-worthless-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Is A Worthless Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"love2\"<\/a>(Credit: Boris Kasimov, Flickr Creative Commons<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t care who you are.<\/p>\n

If you were a American Christian teenager in the 90s, you loved<\/em> DC Talk.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t even pretend like you didn\u2019t. Even if you went to one of those fundamentalist churches that thinks Christian rock (and, of course, rap too) is the devil\u2019s music, we both know you were sneaking in a little Jesus Freak<\/a>\"\"<\/em> time when your\u00a0parents weren\u2019t looking. We all knew every word to every song on that album\u2026and most of us still do.<\/p>\n

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Looking back, those earlier albums like Nu Thang<\/a>\"\"<\/em> and Free at Last<\/a>\"\"<\/em> and especially their accompanying music videos look crazy cheesy.<\/p>\n

(Seriously. Watch this video<\/a> and try not to say, \u201cwhoa.\u201d You can\u2019t do it.)<\/p>\n

But in spite of the\u00a0inexplicable shirtless vest wearing<\/a>, the Liberty University dropouts had at least one line in one song that is as relevant today as it was way back in the day when it was ok to wear this hat<\/a> in public.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m talking, of course, about Luv Is A Verb<\/a>\"\"<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Even if you\u2019re not down with the DC Talk, d-d-down with the DC Talk and you can\u2019t flow like a bottle of Drain-O, stay with me on this and I promise I won\u2019t make anymore references to any other 90s-era Christian rap\/rock groups.<\/p>\n

Love is<\/em> a verb.<\/p>\n

Especially in a Christian context.<\/p>\n

It seems like a such a simple and obvious statement: love is something you do, no just something you feel or think about. That\u2019s how Jesus approached love and as his followers we should do the same. Not much controversy there.\u00a0In fact, whether you\u2019re talking to super liberal or super conservative folks, you would be incredibly hard-pressed to find a Christian who would say they don\u2019t love their neighbor and their enemies alike.<\/p>\n

But far too often, that\u2019s about all our love\u00a0is. Like so many other things in American Christianity, loving our neighbors\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0our enemies\u00a0is an idea we always agree with, but too rarely put into practice.<\/p>\n

We agree that we should love our LGBT neighbors and even say that we do, but we\u2019re ready at the drop of a hat to protest, boycott, and\u00a0prooftext our way out of guaranteeing them equal rights.<\/em><\/p>\n

We agree that\u00a0we should love our black brothers and sisters and even say that we do, but when they die at the hands of\u00a0authorities, we go out of our way to justify their execution and deny them justice.<\/em><\/p>\n

We agree that\u00a0we should love our immigrant neighbors and even say that we do, but we denounce any grace that is extended to them and cry out for a wall to be built to keep \u201cthe rest of them\u201d out of our country.<\/em><\/p>\n

And while we all agree we should love our enemies and don\u2019t hesitate to say we do, when those enemies threaten our safety or peace of mind, we make it clear we\u2019d rather drop bombs and put bullets in their heads then pray for them.<\/em><\/p>\n

We passionately preach love from our pulpits and shout it from the mountaintops every chance we get, but\u00a0when it comes time to putting that love into action and loving the people we don\u2019t like, the people we\u2019re afraid of, the people we don\u2019t understand, and especially the people we think are sinners, we bend over backwards to excuse ourselves from offering\u00a0them even an ounce of grace.<\/p>\n

Yet, we continue to tell ourselves we\u2019re loving because we love the people who already love us, the people it\u2019s easy and safe to love. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/sup>If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same<\/em><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

We can come up with excuses for why we couldn\u2019t help them<\/em>, find Bible verses to justify why shouldn\u2019t\u00a0serve those people<\/em>, and conjure up terrifying scenarios of what might happen if we love the wrong people, but neither\u00a0the presence of sin nor our fear of evil give\u00a0us\u00a0a Get Out Of Loving Free<\/em> card.<\/p>\n

If anything, where sin and evil abound, love and grace should abound even more.<\/p>\n

As clich\u00e9 as it may sound, I truly believe that\u00a0love\u00a0can change the world.<\/p>\n

But if love remains\u00a0nothing more than an idea, a principle we agree with but rarely practice, then it is utterly worthless.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Credit: Boris Kasimov, Flickr Creative Commons) I don\u2019t care who you are. If you were a American Christian teenager in the 90s, you loved DC Talk. Don\u2019t even pretend like you didn\u2019t. Even if you went to one of those fundamentalist churches that thinks Christian rock (and, of course, rap too) is the devil\u2019s music, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":13407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLove Is A Worthless Idea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(Credit: Boris Kasimov, Flickr Creative Commons) I don't care who you are. If you were a American Christian teenager in the 90s, you loved DC Talk. 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