This weekend, I saw lots of people posting "#PrayersForMexico" on social media. I almost had a heart attack when I realized that some of these same social media friends were the same people who mock other ethnicities, repeat quotes and memes disparaging people in lower economic classes and support politicians who have not only opposed immigration, but severely mistreated undocumented immigrants.

So I posted this, which got a lot of "likes" and shares.

 

This morning, I am still heartbroken for the ways in which we are hypocritical.  For the ways in which we claim to be people of God -- and then proceed to act nothing like Him (and, in some cases, do exactly the opposite of what he's asked us to do.)

I would say this -- especially to Americans.

If the country you were born in becomes the deciding factor for the way you treat people, there's a big problem.

If the laws written by people of your same nationality become more important to you -- and even override -- the commands of Jesus, there's a big problem.

If you'd rather take your moral cues from a group of womenizing, cheating white men who not only owned, but slept with, their slaves, than take your cues from Divine Love, there's a big problem.

When we decide to become a "Christian," a person who is like Christ, a person who follows in the footsteps of Jesus, we decide to follow him alone.

We commit to becoming people of the Beatitudes, people who are meek, who are poor in spirit, who hunger for justice, who are merciful, who are pure in heart and who are known as peacemakers.

And I would encourage all of us, especially as the political rhetoric begins to amp up for the 2016 election, to remember who we are, and who we are called to be, as followers of Jesus.

To remember that countries and borders are things that we finite humans have constructed.

To remember that all people -- no matter where they were born or what color their skin is -- are beautiful images that God has created.

And we are called to love everyone.

Not as "whites" loving "blacks" or  "Americans" loving "Mexicans" but as children of God loving fellow children of God with the radical, sacrificial, selfless love with which God loves each of us.  With which God so loves the world.