Jesus was teaching on the side of a
Palestinian mountain when he said these things:
“You’re familiar with the old written
law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m
challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the
best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with
the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your
God-created selves.
"This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm
and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and
nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do
that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal?
Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that."
All that is
said for me to say this: I'm not a fan of Cam Newton. O never have been. I
never will be, I'm thinking.
It starts
with, amazingly enough, his father. n 2010, as
Cam was on his way to winning the Heisman, he became engaged in
controversy when it was alleged his father, Cecil Newton Sr., has sought
upwards of $180,000 in exchange for Cam to transfer from Blinn Junior College
to Mississippi State the previous year. Uh, have I mentioned I went to Mississippi State?
Newton was
originally ruled ineligible by Auburn, where he had landed after junior
college, on November 30, just four days before the SEC Championship, but he was
reinstated by the NCAA when it was concluded that he had no knowledge of
his father’s actions. The NCAA's 13-month investigation into Auburn
The NCAA’s 13-month investigation into Auburn’s recruitment of
Newton ultimately done wrongdoing by the school, while Cam has
said his father “took to brunt of the blow for me to play.”
I don't like the
way he plays and demonstrates his joy when he plays. I don't like the way he
looked and acted last night after his loss in the Super Bowl. You talk to
reporters in wins and in losses. If you don’t, you’re not a professional.
I don't like the
fact he and lots of others say that it's because he is African-American. I
don't like the fact he says no one has seen a player like him when I go all the
way back to Randall Cunningham in pro football and Reggie Collier in college.
Black quarterbacks who could run, and did so magnificently.
I don’t like the
fact the Saints have to play him twice each year. I don’t like the fact the
Panthers swept the Saints this year. I don’t like the fact he chose the name
Chosen for his son, and I don’t like the fact he had a child out of wedlock,
which still means something to some in this culture and society.
I don’t like him.
Sorry, but it’s true.
But here’s the
thing: “Jesus said if all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus?
Anyone can do that.”
So, this morning,
though I don’t want to, I’m grieving like he is grieving. I’m hurting because
he’s hurting. I’m caring because he cared deeply.
That’s what
Christian love is. We love our enemies.
Unfortunately the
list is a long one.
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