Jesus Don’t Like Ugly
By: Crystal Jackson
Tags: Religion, Mental Health, Self-awareness, Humanity, Love

Jesus Don’t Like Ugly

There’s No Place for Hate in Religion

Photo by Raychan on Unsplash

It’s greatly perplexing to me that many card-carrying religious enthusiasts seem to have centered their fervor around hate rather than love. Because I live in the southern portion of the United States, I notice this often with Christianity. It’s like they’re ignoring everything we know about the life of Jesus. Loving our neighbor has gone right out the window, and the Sermon on the Mount has been shoved aside to make way for a doctrine that focuses on judgment, condemnation, and anger.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…

Those were the lyrics of a song I learned as a child about the “fruits of the spirit”, referencing the Biblical verses Galatians 5:22–23. These are the kind of ideals that are espoused by Christianity. Whether or not they are practiced remains to be seen. Instead, the modern religious right seems to be practicing anything but love or joy or peace. Kindness and self-control also seem to have been thrown out the window.

Like a street-corner preacher screaming hate at passersby, we seem to have a disconnect between the message of Jesus and the practice of the people who do things in his name. If Jesus hadn’t left his grave already, as Christians believe, he might surely be turning in it.

I should say that I know a great many people who identify as Christian who represent the life and message of Jesus with all of those spiritual traits. They’re the ones who feed the hungry without condemning them first or requiring that they ingest a religious service before eating. They’re the ones who are trying to understand others, not judge their life experiences. They’re kind and loving, and they don’t go around telling people that they’re going to hell.

Some people seem to believe that their behavior is permissible because they hold the Jesus card.

What, you may rightly ask, is a Jesus card? It’s when someone is so self-righteous that they believe they get a pass on being, frankly, an asshole. When someone identifies as Christian but then acts, consistently, in an aggressive and even bullying manner with no remorse for his/her actions, this person is playing the Jesus card.

But here’s the thing:

There. Is. No. Jesus. Card.

Just like there’s no Buddha card. Or Allah card. Or Universe-Get-Out-of-Karma-Free Card.

We don’t ever have a free pass to be an asshole because we think we’re more spiritual or more religious or simply more right than other people. Sure, it might feel good to unload for a minute and to write the other person off as ignorant, brain-washed, or somehow inferior to ourselves.

Just thinking that way can, in our own minds, absolve us of our treatment of other human beings. But it is actually dehumanizing them, and that’s not okay.

We’re not given the master pass to treat other people poorly because we think we have God/Allah/Krishna or any other deity, or set of beliefs on our side.

When we’re horrible to someone else, no religion or spiritual orientation sides with us.

Christians: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Matthew 7:12, King James Version.

Buddhists: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” ~ Udana-Varga 5:18

“One should seek for others the happiness one desires for oneself.”

Confucianists: “Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.” ~ Doctrine of the Mean

Hinduism states: “This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you.” ~ Mahabharata 5:1517

In Islamic tradition: “None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” ~ Number 13 of Imam “Al-Nawawi’s Forty Hadiths” (writing by Muhammad)

In Judaism: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” ~ Leviticus 19:18

In Native American Spirituality: “Respect for all life is the foundation.” ~ The Great Law of Peace

And Pima proverb: “Do not wrong or hate your neighbor. For it is not he who you wrong, but yourself.”

None of these practices give out a free pass for worshippers to treat others poorly. Even the Satanists — yes, the devil-worshippers much feared in Christianity — have standards of behavior around treating others with compassion.

So, no, there’s no spiritual pass for shitty behavior toward others.

Not for me or for anyone else, and I’ve had moments of being guilty of this as well.

What we need to remember when we’re tempted to let “the other side” of any particular argument feel our wrath is that every religion and spiritual tradition does share one common thread: they all urge us to practice the same kindness and courtesy to others as we would like to receive ourselves.

None of us, not one person among us, wants to be on the receiving end of vitriolic words or actions.

It’s not complicated.

People get passionate about the things they love — and the things they hate. Our passionate nature can be the driving force that helps to create change or save lives, but it can also be the force that leads us to destruction and take lives. It’s all in how we use it.

If we can focus all that passion on loving others, being kind, practicing compassion, and living a life that honors our values, we really won’t have time to be monitoring or judging others for their life choices.