For all the lip service we like to pay from time to time about mercy, forgiveness and humility, I believe Hutchmo is right:

And they came to him again, and said, ‘No really, who IS our neighbor’?

And He said, ‘that bag lady on the corner inexplicably talking on a cell phone’

The more leftist of the group kind of liked that answer, but they all wondered how in hades the bag lady could afford an honest-to-god flip-top cell phone.

But, then He had more to say, ‘Jerry Falwell was your neighbor’…

One of the more vocal of the bunch exploded: “you’re f***ing kidding me.  That jackass set the movement back three hundred years.   He is the poster child of how people confuse the church with your message.  I’m glad that guy finally bit the big one’.

He said, “I didn’t say you had to like him.  Do you want to hear more about your neighbors”

Suddenly they all had appointments and things that must be tended to and left the mountaintop.   One of them was heard muttering as he descended to the valley, ‘If that prick was really my neighbor, I’d move’.

It ought to be easy enough to have compassion for a bag lady or anyone else in rough circumstances, though sadly for those of us who aren’t named Charles Strobel, it often isn’t. There are plenty of worse people on this planet than Jerry Falwell, and I hope forgiveness lies in the future for every single one of them.

Even the ones we think we’re better than. Thanks for the reminder, John.

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