So this brings me to something that left me speechless this week. Love is not a liberal or conservative theology it is the core, the very center of Christianity.at least it's supposed to be. It turns our human understanding of justice on its head, and it places love firmly at the center of the Gospel. He extended mercy and forgiveness to the people who crucified him. As Jesus hung on the cross, it would have been completely understandable for him to call down wrath upon his persecutors. It makes sense to our human understanding of right and wrong. People are often quick to stand for justice but equally quick to leave love and mercy standing on the sidelines. But always elevate and embrace forgiveness. Friends, there should never be a backlash against forgiveness. Consider the backlash against a viral video of Texas murder victim Botham Jean's brother extending forgiveness to his brother's killer. It becomes us versus them, right versus wrong, and we put up walls to protect our little ideological fiefdoms. Judgment, control and even rage become normal. When our view of justice is not infused with love, unforgiveness and intolerance becomes acceptable. Just hear me out with this.īoth extremes have a tendency to feel the justice of their cause so deeply that ideals like love, mercy, grace, and compassion can easily get pushed out of the picture. But what strikes me about our sense of justice today is that it seems particularly heightened on both the far right and the far left. The world needs people like William Wilberforce, Susan B. The fight against social injustice is necessary and good. We pat ourselves on the back for taking the 'right' stand. When we believe our cause is just, we feel better about ourselves. This morning I was thinking about the nature of justice.

When did it become wrong to be friends with someone you disagree with?

Just look at the way Ellen DeGeneres was attacked for calling George W. We've lost our ability to find common ground. The voices seem more strident, viewpoints more extreme. My views are more or less the same as they were ten or twenty years ago, but everything around me has changed. The strange thing is that this migration seems to have happened without my really moving. I've always thought of myself as fairly conservative, but lately I find myself standing more and more in the center, a center I'm having a hard time locating. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that our world has become distressingly polarized.

Quick word with beth moore