E-Minute by Marcus Perry                                                                                             

About three years ago I went through a serious crisis with the church I was attending.  You could say I went through a serious crisis with “the church” in general.  Ironically what brought about this crisis was an epiphany – a moment when I felt like I learned something sitting in God’s classroom.  What I learned was this: Christianity is a discipline of love – period.  Therefore the time I spend sitting in a pew each Sunday MUST be teaching me more about loving people.  With sadness I realized that this was not true of most of my twenty years of church-going.  So I left my church and went on a quest.  I decided I would go to a different church each week until I found a church that understood my very simple epiphany.  I intended to go to 52 different churches in one year – I actually went to about 30.  I experienced a broad range of good and bad in each church.  But ultimately I came to Crescent Hill and stopped looking.  Most importantly I knew I had found a place where my children would grow up surrounded by lessons in “loving all people” that I wished I had had myself.  Best of all, these lessons come not just from the pulpit, but also from a congregation that is vibrant with compassion.

I find it ironic to be saying these words during election season.  Now is traditionally the time to set aside knowing people and just focus on the label we think they are wearing.  If Christianity is a discipline of love, and if America is a country founded on the concept of respectfully disagreeing with each other, then what could be more unchristian or un-American than the behavior we see every four years?  Whenever a person’s stance on an issue makes us prejudge that person we rob them of their humanity and immediately step out of Christ’s footsteps.

During election season it is easy to think “if someone votes for the other guy then they must be evil.  If they’re not evil then they’re stupid. If they’re not stupid then they’re uninformed.”  But I am here to remind us all that good, smart, well-informed people will be voting differently than you or I will on election day.  And in the midst of so much negative rhetoric on all sides, I am proud to be here: an oasis where I really believe we do our human best to see humanity in all people.  It is good to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with all of you, and fight – to constantly remove boundaries between “those people” and us.