If we were to forgive Christianity—which is really to say forgive those who have mislabeled themselves Christian—we might find the grace we seek for ourselves. If we maintain compassion and even hospitality for those who have found in their religious sect what they thought was a safe harbor from the world they fear so much, they might give themselves permission for the scales to fall from their eyes.
Surround fear with love. That’s what the teachings say. Even when fear comes from the teachers themselves. Ignore convention. Listen to someone’s heart, not their mouth. Heal their wounds, don’t judge them for their scars. Frightened people make terrible choices. Sooth their fears. Keep them safe. Build their health. Educate them. Eventually they will make better decisions.
Jesus’s teachings ask us to be proactive in reaching out to people who are sick, alienated, rejected, judged. These are the very people who claim to know exactly whom God hates and why. They are the ones who are lost. We are encouraged by the dharma of Christianity to go out into the world and find them. It’s an active outward practice. But even as an internal practice there is exceptional value. How do you feel about Christianity? For those who feel resentment let it go. You don’t have to go to church. You don’t have to pick a denomination. You don’t even have to believe in God. Just sit quietly with yourself and find a way to reach for a higher thought. Reach into your imagination to see a way through someone’s hateful actions to the desperate fear inside them. Send love to that fear. That is the Christian life practice.
Create little examples of compassion for others to see. Not to be commended, but emulated. Invite someone who thinks against you to dinner. Seek every pathway of agreement. Find every commonality. Fear dissolves in the face of true welcoming.
Daryl Davis is a black man who for 30 years has befriended members of the Ku Klux Klan on purpose. He just talks with them. He goes to their rallies and invites conversation as well as friendship with white supremacists. Daryl is a radical. This is exactly what I think Jesus would do.
Davis does not attack them. He does not validate their fears of him. He disarms them with his humanity and in turn they do what is claimed to be impossible. They change. Over the decades, 200 Klansmen have given him their robes. Davis is a fearless practitioner of the dharma of Christianity regardless of his personal faith. And through it he does the job we are all asked to do. Recognize fear and do your part to assuage it. Make friends of your enemies. Shovel your crabby neighbor’s walk in the winter.
Remember the Hindu concept of Namasté. It is in perfect alignment with the Christian dharma and gets to the very heart of it all. The divine in me sees and honors the divine in you. Jesus knew that if we would only just talk with one another we would see ourselves in each other’s eyes. Once that is accomplished, world peace is truly inevitable.
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