THE LATEST HOLOCAUST VICTIM

“And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.” (Genesis 4:8)

That verse tells of the first murder. Sometime after the fall of the human race, Cain hated his brother Abel and killed him. Hatred, violence and murder have been with us ever since. We aren’t typically shocked by hearing about murders. It seems like there are at least three or four of them reported on T.V. news in the Boston area every week. I WAS shocked and saddened to hear about the Washington, DC murder of security guard Stephen Johns at the Holocaust Memorial Museum. By now, most of you have heard that 88-year-old James von Brunn was the murderer. Those who knew von Brunn say he was consumed with hatred for Jews and Blacks. Some of you will consider this a stretch, but I think it could be argued that African-American Stephen Johns was in a sense the latest victim of the holocaust. No he wasn’t Jewish, but keep in mind that Adolph Hitler was an “equal opportunity hater”. He hated Blacks and Gypsies equally as much as he hated Jews. Nazis were responsible for the extermination of 100,000 Gypsies as well as six million Jews. Let’s face it, there weren’t too many Black Africans in Europe in 1940. If there were, there would have been full blown extermination camps for them, too.

This morning, I arrived at our church building to find gang graffiti scrawled in blue spray paint on the front of the building. Whoever the sprayer was, the person was “smart” enough to spray it on the yellow brick and not on the painted area. Our building has been graffitied at least twelve times in the past fifteen years. At least when it’s done on the painted area, I can easily paint it out. On the brickwork, it means getting liquid graffiti remover, a wire brush, S.O.S. pads, paper towels, and a bucket of water and working like a fanatic to get the stuff cleaned off. Well, you never get it 100% cleaned off, but I had to consider that 95% was good enough. Back in 2000 when our building was hit with graffiti I was told by a police officer that in some instances such an incident could be considered a “hate crime”. As frustrating as it is when our church building is sprayed with graffiti, it’s not much compared to a swastika being painted on a synagogue. Even so, you definitely feel violated and disrespected.

A prominent Boston radio talk show host was recently suspended for several weeks for making derogatory remarks over the air against Mexicans. I share some of his concerns about illegal aliens, but he went WAY OVER THE LINE into racism! In fact, we have a Mexican-American family who attend our church. The Dad is a naturalized U.S. citizen. The Mom is has a “green card”. The kids were born in this country. It really saddens me that someone would hate this family because Spanish is their first language and because their skin is quite a bit darker than mine. Don’t get me wrong. When certain Black militants call white people “blue-eyed devils”, I am equally appalled and disgusted.

My late mother used to say things (very dramatically) like, “Oooohhhh WHY can’t people get along?!” or “Oooohhhh I just want PEACE AND QUIET!”. Yes, she was kind of dramatic and emotional, but she had a point. Forty years ago, Sly and the Family Stone sang about all the groups of people who won’t accept other groups of people. And, who was it who sang, “Where have all the flowers gone?” Pete Seeger or someone like that?

I know. I’m freaking out all my conservative Republican friends. Listen, I’m still a registered Republican and I’m still pretty conservative on most issues. I’m also under no illusions that there will be any lasting peace before the return of Jesus Christ to this earth to set up his Millennial and Messianic Kingdom. There will be TEMPORARY times of peace, yes, and thank God for them, but only the Lord can and will bring lasting peace.

But when the liberals cry and wring their hands singing stuff like, “All we are saying is give peace a chance”, well I think they’re very naive, but I do appreciate the sentiment. My clergy friend the Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell wrote a piece some time ago on her blog called, “Be the Buddha of the Road”. I told her I liked it but I’d rather she called it “Be the Jesus of the Road”. I knew what she meant, though. This afternoon, a guy in a late model Chevrolet Impala was following SO close to my old Volkswagen Golf here in Framingham that he nearly hit me! At one point I was driving five miles over the speed limit in moderate traffic and he was still “on my bumper”. Eventually on Concord St. he roared past on the left. I’ve gotta tell ya, everything in me wanted to “gun it” and get right on HIS bumper! But, I thought a second and decided to be “the Jesus of the Road” and let him speed off. (Now, my Registry cop father would have stopped him and issued him a ticket!) It actually felt good to do the right thing. Suddenly, I thought about the “individual” who scrawled the graffiti on our church building. The thought came to me: “Pray for that kid.”

“I don’t want to pray for that kid!!” I annoyingly thought.

Well, somewhat grudgingly, I did pray for him. That, too, was the right thing to do.

No, I haven’t turned into a bleeding heart liberal, but at some point, we DO have to say no to hate. I sure wish James von Brunn had learned that about 80 years ago!