love – Houghton STAR

By Skye Chaapel

Mark 12:29-31 (NIV) “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

As a Christian community, I feel we need to ask ourselves this: are we following Christ’s example? Are we loving our neighbors to the best of our capabilities, as asked of us by Christ? If you ask people within the Houghton community, I’m sure they’d say yes. However, while there are some of us who are loving our neighbors, there are others who are not. They could be saying yes out of the want to look good for themselves or others, denial, or ignorance. These are questions that I have been truly struggling with for a while.

What if we asked the question: “Do you feel loved on campus?” What would you expect the answer to be? One would hope that the answer is a resounding yes, as we are all Christians, called to love. Unfortunately, I know far too many students who do not feel loved by the Houghton community, myself included. Those of us who differ from the Wesleyan traditions’ expectations are generally treated as outcasts on campus. This includes people of a different ethnicity and race, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and people of different religious backgrounds.

For me, one of the major drawing points to Houghton four years ago was the close-knit community that existed on campus; it was something you could feel, and it almost felt tangible. After some of the recent events though, I feel like I no longer belong here. I know students who have received death threats, unwelcome comments, or racial slurs depending on their identity or race. Houghton University’s President also received unacceptable slurs on his birthday card last year. As a community, we should be appalled that this is happening and that we have allowed it to continue. What happened to loving our neighbors? There is no love that comes from those actions. The Houghton community is striving to be an ideal Christian community, but many do not feel welcome here. We can not have a Christian community that is founded on Jesus if there are members of it who are suffering from our actions.

We need to learn to love each other. We do not always need to agree on things, but that should not stop us from extending God’s grace and love to each other. Jesus taught us to love and not to judge others. You do not know what someone else could be struggling with at any moment. Be kind and be willing to keep an open mind when interacting with others. As the followers of Christ, we are called to meet people where they are, be with them, and walk with them in their journey. ★

If you or someone you know is the target of hateful behaviors, we encourage you to reach out to the Office of Student Life.

By Brianna Engler (’22)

Out of all the commandments that Jesus could have focused on during his ministry and time on Earth, he chose the two commandments centered around love. Not only did he speak of love, but he also lived it. He did so as an example of how us Christians should love each other. Yet, as I look around today, I seldom see this radical love. As Christians, we are called to “love our neighbors as ourselves” and we are failing. This is the part where you may say, “But I love everyone.” If you are truly honest with yourself, do you though? This radical love I am talking about is more than a surface feeling or description of your agreeable personality. This is action. You may be kind to someone to their face, or tolerate their presence when you are near them, but what about when you aren’t around them? Under your breath do you say “ugh, those [democrats/republicans/fill in the blank]?” Do you talk to your like-minded friends about how wrong someone else is? I have. I am writing this as someone who is in the midst of figuring out how to love radically. I am failing, but I am striving to be better.

It is all over the news: we are an extremely divided country. We love our neighbors, as long as they think just like us. Any other individual is not one’s neighbor, but rather an evil being. We love to demonize the outgroup almost as much as we love our ingroup. Let’s make this a little more convicting with examples. Have you ever heard, or said, “All those democrats are baby killers,” or “All those republicans are homophobic”? How are these statements helping anyone? Answer: they are not. Why are we all high and mighty? Jesus lived among the sinners, he loved them and cared for them. One thing Jesus did not do was demonize them or look at them as lost causes. Yet we, each and every one of us sinners, believe it is our right to point out the sins in others and ostracize them for it. To that I repeat the words of scripture, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye.” We are called to be the light of the earth, butI do not believe that people see light when they look at Christians right now. Rather, they observe our hatred towards one another, our anger, our hypocrisy. Each side unwilling to seriously talk to the other. This is where we are failing. We should be able to have a conversation with those we disagree with. By this I do not mean a conversation in which you are trying to disprove the other by demolishing them, nor do I mean a conversation where you hide your true views. I mean an authentic conversation in which all parties are open to learning about the side of the person they are talking to. One in which each person is not yelling at one another but are trying to learn from the other. Do not get me wrong: this is hard. It is so difficult to hear another side when you so desperately believe that you are right. I have had these moments. Moments where I want to shake someone until they see the truth and scream “why don’t you understand, why don’t you see?” Where did I get the idea that I know the whole truth? Currently, we all believe we have the truth, but we do not. The only way to get to the Truth is to communicate with others and be willing to learn and grow together.

Just to reiterate, I am not advocating for everyone to “agree to disagree.” We should be able to disagree respectfully and still learn from that. In addition to this, part of radically loving someone is helping them. If someone you know has been given misinformation, you should call that out. Just a few examples of topics that many people are misinformed on include COVID, the vaccine, and voter fraud. With so many variations of the truth swirling around, we may need to be directed to reliable sources. Ones like NPR and The Wall Street Journal are fairly neutral and are fact reporting (according to Media Bias Chart, 2018). Using resources like this can be very helpful. One thing that is never helpful: telling someone they are not a Christian because of the political party they align with. Let us remember that we have all fallen short of the glory of God but are saved through grace. We are Christians first and foremost, our political party is not, or at least should not be, a large part of our identity, especially when compared to the image of God that we bear. While I focused on political affiliations, since it is the most prominent area in which we are failing as Christians, we are divided in so many more ways. Be diligent at looking into yourself and work with God to pluck out any hatred. Work with those who see things differently than you in order to reach Truth. Above all, look to the greatest example of radical love and do likewise. ★

Bri is a junior majoring in psychology with a minor in diversity studies.