There has been alot of Scripture thrown around in the current discussions about the Indiana RFRA. However, all Christians everywhere agree that the two most important commandements are "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul all your strength and with all your mind" and "Love your neighbor as yourself."
The question then of course, is "who is my neighbor?"
I am going to get a lot of flack and correction for this, but let me re-cast the answer Jesus gave to that very question.
A guy was traveling through Indiana and took a late night walk in downtown Indy. As an out of towner he didn't know what areas of the downtown to avoid at night and he was cornered, mugged, brutally beaten, and left lying half in and half out of an alley.
A Republican politician walked by on his way to the state house (which is near downtown Indianapolis). He saw the bleeding man on the sidewalk, tsked, and crossed over to the other side of the street. Similarly, a Fox news anchor saw our poor victim as he was heading to the local TV station and also made a wide path around him.
It also so happened that a gay man was walking down that street on his way to one of Indianapolis's gay bars. He saw the hurt man and his heart was touched. He went to him, helped the man to his feet, and supported him on the four block walk to the nearest emergency room. He checked the stranger in and sat with him until he was seen and admitted to the hospital. Since the man was barely conscious, and without any money or identification, the gay man handed his credit card to receptionist so to settle any payments. "Here is my phone number," he said. "Please call me if this poor man needs anything else. I will also check back on him in a few days."
Jesus finished his account (which the reader probably recognizes as the famous parable of the good Samaritan), he asked, "Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man that was mugged?" The answer given was "The one who showed mercy on him." Jesus concluded "Go and do likewise."
Follow me below the fold to see how I suggest we all go and do likewise.
Now, there is a very specific reason that I substituted "gay man" for Samaritan in this recounting. Samaritans were reflexively despised by the religious authorities of the day. Jesus made the hero of the story a Samaritan to really hammer home the point that we are to love everyone, with no conditions -- and that even those people we think are unworthy of our love can themselves show love.
How powerful would it be if someone from the LGBT community would show kindness to the Memories Pizza owners? Right now we are trading hate for hate (and as the saying goes, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind). If instead, someone that these people fear (and, I think, it is fear and unfamiliarity that drive alot of prejudices), were to show true love and kindnes, alot of progress would be made. I have to confess that I have been on the side of being an angry person (not having to do with bigotry) -- I was on the opposite side of some very impassioned arguments in my workplace and held a grudge against a fellow employee. When I got into a bind one day in a totally different situation, the person I held a grudge against actually came to my rescue. I cannot even begin to describe how that changed me. For one thing, I found it impossible to continue to hold the grudge against my friend. A similar thing happened recently when an anti-ACA zealot needed money for medical care. Instead of kicking him when he was down and saying I told you so -- many pro ACA people contributed to his cause.
We aren't going to change all hate by acting unhateful -- I am not that naive. But, we can change some of it -- I have seen it first hand.
So my suggestion in all of this nonsense going on Indiana (where I live, by the way) -- is not to meet hate with hate, but rather meet hate with love -- with openness, generosity, friendliness, compassion, mercy. We will make significant progress. And of course, we need to keep putting the pressure on the politicians to repeal the law. But an open hand is much more powerful than a clenched fist, in my experience.