Have You Come Here To Play Jesus To the Lepers In Your Head?

November 10, 2006

"Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head?"- Bono

As I was doing my daily morning lap around my campus and getting myself prepared for one of the biggest events of the year (Sankofa's Friday Fish Fry! What you know about that? I know all about that!), one of the openly conservative students on campus drove past me with a bumper sticker that read, "The World Needs God."

My first reaction was a hearty Christian, "Amen," but as I continued to walk and ponder the statement, my mind slowly began to change.

The world needs God. True. Very true. As a devout Christian, I sincerely believe that the world would never survive without the God of Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham. The God of Martin, Medgar, and Mamie. Or the God of Malcolm, Muhammad, and Megawati. No, the world could not live without God. And yes, the world does need Him.

The thing is, He's never left. This mighty God would never leave his creations or the world that He loved so much that he gave His only begotten Son for. No, He would never leave it. The world needs God and the world has Him.

What the world needs is to realize that God is God, and the world is NOT. This means that the inhabitants of this world have no right to unjustly condemn, convict, or kill God's people. However, those who seem to scream the loudest about God, or the lack thereof, are the ones who seem to find the most pleasure in pretending to be Him. Take for instance, Ted Haggard.

You know, I've always been a lil on the wary side about these "conservative," "compassionate," "Evangelicals," who obsess about who's having sex with whom and in what orifice. It's like my Shakespeare said, "thou doth protest too much." I mean, if you're not gay, why are gay people on your mind 24/7? I mean, damn, I don't think gay people are on GAY PEOPLE'S minds 24/7! Yet, some of these "men" build whole careers around trying to prevent gays and lesbians from exercising their rights to be, I don't know.........law abiding and tax paying citizens. I wonder who told gay people that being a responsible citizen earns you rights in America. Silly them. Just like Trix are for kids, rights are for straight, Christian, white males.

Being that I grew up in what could've easily been considered a "conservative Christian" home, I heard the speeches about how terrible homosexuality was from everyone including my pastor, the speakers on Moody Bible Institute's radio station (listened to James Dobson's Focus On the Family minute every morning), to "former gays." All of them spoke with such vigor about this supposedly disgusting sin. In the back of my mind, even at a young age, I always wondered if they were that passionate about their own wives.

So it seldom surprises me when one of these people are caught with their........I can't help it.......pants down. And it looks like that's exactly what's happened to good ole boy Ted Haggard. Haggard says that he bought meth from a male prostitute but did not use it. He also says that he didn't have sex with this man, but only received "massages."

Well, while I was indeed born at night, (around 7 p.m. on a Monday) unfortunately for people like Haggard, I wasn't born last night. You didn't go meet up with a male prostitute and only get a massage from him. Unless, of course, it was one of those massages with a "happy ending." And although you may not have inhaled the meth, you took a couple of puffs. (I guess that's how you do meth. You smoke it right? I mean, I wouldn't know. Ask Haggard.)

This is a man who spends many hours of his day pushing the whole conservative Christian agenda down the throats of Americans. All up in D.C. lobbying. Talking to president Bush every Monday morning. Pissed off with Bush cause he hasn't delivered on his promise to make marriage for everyone constitutionally illegal. (The term "gay marriage" is just stupid. I mean, do we say "straight marriage?") All up in that crazy ass documentary "Jesus Camp" talking bout "So we don't have to debate about what we think about homosexuality activity. It's written in the Bible." Leading a congregation of 14,000 folks everyday. Talking the talk, but not walking the walk.

But let me stop. Really. Because if I call him a hypocrite, that makes me no better than he. There are things that I denounce regularly, but still happen to do. For example, I've been recently trying to stop using the word "n*gga," but as my friend Kellee can tell you, I haven't been too successful. I know that holding a grudge is wrong, but I can hold onto a grudge like a 4 year-old holds onto their blankie. But I don't want anybody judging me and saying I'm an awful person because of it, do I? Of course not. And that's why I don't spend my time running around talking about how much I can't stand vindictive people or folks who say "n*gga," because I KNOW I participate in those very activities. I KNOW it is not my place to condemn. Because, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

I don't have a problem with people believing homosexuality is a sin. Hell, I believed it for the better portion of my life, and I can totally respect someone's right to believe what he or she wants. I don't even have a problem with folks who don't like black people. The only thing is, you need to be real about yours. If you hate Negroes, tell us. Don't smile in our faces and then stab us in our backs. If you don't like homosexuality, don't participate in homosexual activity.

So the whole situation can be wrapped up in two of my favorite prolific sayings, "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," and "I knew he was gay!"

When Bono asks, in his song, One, "have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head," it seemed to fit perfectly with my opinions on the whole neo-con movement. Who are you really healing here? You claim that homosexuals need to be healed, but you condemn them to the point that many of them wouldn't be caught dead in a church. You say you are pro-life, yet after you've convinced a woman to have a child she can't take care of, you do everything in your power to "reform" welfare to the point where her children are starving. You say you serve the "Prince of Peace," but you go to war at the drop of a hat. You say that you serve a merciful God, but you pass judgement on people all day and twice on Sundays.

Who are you saving? Who's savior are you? Who told you that you could save someone? You're only playing Jesus to the lepers in your own head. You're only soothing your own shame and self-hate by persecuting others. At the end of the day, you're only concerned with preserving your way of life. Making sure that the "good ole days" never die. Even though the "good ole days" weren't "good" to anyone but you.

Well, I hope that the Jesus that you created up there rises from his grave in three days. I sincerely hope that the stone is rolled away; for your sake. I hope that he can mend your broken heart and wounded spirit. But after all these years of his silence, I think it's safe to say, he's dead.