In many churches this past Sunday, people heard Luke’s story where Jesus walks into his hometown synagogue and is handed the Isaiah scroll, from which he read about good news to the poor, prisoners, blind and oppressed. Everybody was impressed because he had made headlines in a neighboring town, and they wanted the same action for themselves.

But then Jesus reminded them of the time when there were lots of starving widows in Israel, but through Elijah, God fed just one outsider, a Gentile woman. And once, when there were many lepers in Israel, God through Elisha healed just one Syrian leper. This ticked everybody off in the synagogue that day, this reminder that God’s blessings didn’t stop with one people.

And so they tried to throw Jesus off a cliff. Imagine that! You don’t like to be reminded of the good news of God for all so, in the words of Pastor Sarah Buteux at First Churches, you defame, deny, demote, defund, and, in the case of Bishop Mariann Budde, want to deport. And — can you believe it? — all this is with the blessing of a whole cadre of people who call themselves Christian and who have forgotten that the love of God is for the world. The world!

The president has succeeded in harnessing this very human propensity to jealousy about the blessings of others, this instinct to despise anyone we think has gotten more than they deserve. He has brought out the worst in human nature, for his own very public gain for himself and the ultra-wealthy, and at the expense of American kindness.

But kindness — and those who love it — will never let itself be thrown off the cliff. Many will pay for the attempt, with their livelihoods and even their lives. But those of us who believe in good-heartedness can stand up for nothing else.

Scott Barton

Pelham