Stories and details of last Sunday’s shootings in Orlando have filled this weeks’ news. Every time an event reminds me of the reality of terrorists I wonder, what can we do? I’m skeptical of simple solutions, and I’m skeptical of solutions offered by people living far away from the daily reality of terrorism. That’s why I took it seriously when Humphrey, a church leader that lives in Pakistan and regularly travels into ISIS- and Taliban-controlled territory, sat across from me at lunch a few weeks ago and said, “What we really need is more love.”
“What we really need is more love.”
Rev. Humphrey is the bishop for churches across Pakistan. About half of the churches he leads lie in territory controlled by Taliban or ISIS. Every time he goes to these churches – which he does frequently – he runs the risk of being kidnapped and having terrorists tell the government that they’ll kill him if their friends in prison aren’t released. From someone living in the midst of that kind of reality, I expected his proposed solution to be something other than “more love.” I figured that that kind of answer becomes less prominent the closer one lives to life-threatening danger. But as Rev. Humphrey talked I began to understand his response.
The bishop reminded me that for Christians, our goal is to spread a life-transforming faith in Jesus Christ. When people come to know Jesus in such a way that they take on his self-giving character, then hatred and its expressions like terrorism wither and die – not quickly and not without cost as Jesus’ story reminds us, but wither and die they do. Jesus spread that kind of faith and taught his followers to spread it through agape, the Greek word for love that means not good feelings but good actions done for the sake of others. The bishop shared stories of Christians caring for sick and wounded Muslims including one ISIS fighter that said he had never experienced the kind of love he experienced at the hands of his Christian caregivers. The bishop told me that acts of love by Christians are causing life-transforming faith in Jesus Christ to spread in Pakistan.
Rev. Humphrey’s words and his faith challenged and encouraged me. He offered a long-term solution to terrorism that’s simple to say but challenging and costly to live out, and he offered that solution as one who regularly spends time in terrorist-controlled territory. God calls us Christians to spread a life-transforming faith in Jesus Christ through action-oriented love of enemies and strangers and those in need. With God’s help, that’s something we can do wherever we live, and it has the power to overcome hatred.
“What we really need is more love.”
In Christ,
Rich
Rich Rindfuss
Access Pastor
First United Methodist Church Richardson