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Wed.Mar.28.2007

7:07 am EDT        46°F (8°C) in Holland, MI

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I may finally manage to get home tomorrow, only four days late. I’m done running loads for another week at this point, but my truck has again decided to turn into a total piece of shit, and I will have to stop at the Freightliner dealership in Grand Rapids on my way home. Honestly, I’ve had so many little things go to shit on this truck lately that I’m starting to consider going to my fleet manager and demanding a new truck — without regard to the fact that the end of the company’s lease on this truck is coming sometime in the second half of this year. Good fucking riddance to it when they do give it back — I’ve had about enough of air leaks here, leaky window seals there, and short-circuited “pigtails” to boot.

Every so often, I see or hear stories in the media that remind us that there are still true Christians in the world who tirelessly carry out Christ-like work every day. As you no doubt know if you follow this site, I spend a lot of time pointing out the anti-Christian hypocrisy of those so-called “Christians” who insist on keeping God’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender children in fourth-class citizenship; but I feel that it is equally important to point out the good things that are done when people use the Gospels as a guide instead of using Leviticus as a club. A front-page story in yesterday’s USA Today is illustrative of my point.

The article, titled “Cities set limits on serving food to homeless people,” actually focused more on the laws that various cities are passing to restrict the places and/or times in which individuals or groups may provide free food to homeless people. These laws, of course, are in direct contravention of both Jesus’ example (Mark 6:34-44, where He fed a hungry crowd of five thousand people) and commands to us (Matthew 25:34-35), and it is for this reason that Christian groups are suing (or have sued) the cities of Las Vegas and Dallas over the laws.

These Christian groups who are fighting the feeding restrictions are most deserving of our praise and admiration. Unlike Don and Tim Wildmon of the American “Family” Association, or Lou Sheldon of the so-called “Traditional Values” Coalition, or Peter LaBarbera of his own personality cult called “Americans for ‘Truth’,” or James Dobson or Jerry Falwell or any of their ilk, these people are selflessly carrying out the work of Christ, often at great personal risk (the Dallas ordinance specifies $2,000 fines!), and as such they are most definitely earning their way into the heavenly Kingdom of God. Kudos to them — I hope they keep fighting this good fight.

Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming strangers, and caring for the sick are Christian actions. Broadcasting license-plate numbers of cars suspected of belonging to gay men, advocating for marriage-inequality amendments and against equal hate-crime protections, and fear-mongering with non-stop talk of a so-called “homosexual agenda,” on the other hand, are actions motivated by Satan. A good question is, will the Wildmons, Sheldon, LaBarbera, Dobson, Falwell, and all of their followers come to understand this truth in time — or will they see the truth too late (i.e., after they have died) to save their souls? In fact, this is a good question for any of you out there who claim to be Christian — keep that in mind.