This letter makes me wince, but it belongs in the archive. This is what happens when two people — both ignorant of the gospel — engage each other in the newspaper. In defense of the author, however, please note that he wrote one of the best letters to the editor during Douglas Wilson’s slavery scandal of 2003–2004, which you can read here. Mr. Hodgin wrote it in response to this letter (scroll to page 7, Google won’t link it), which exemplifies what it means to be a kirker.
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Understanding Jesus
My Grandma Bertha was a hypocrite. She quoted the Bible daily, brandishing it as a weapon of condemnation. Then, when our family would be summer-driving along some street and drive past black folk walking, she would roll up her window. She would walk across the street in traffic to avoid walking on the same side of the street as black people. Her hypocrisy was the main reason I turned my back on God as a mid-teen. Only after reconciling what I saw in Vietnam with the fact that God had nothing to do with that horror did I return to God. I am responsible for my misdeeds; God is not.
Toby Sumpter reminds me of my grandma: talking the love of Jesus in one breath and hate in the next. When he writes the vile language of his May 15 blog post — the one that horrified Lorna Bickerdyke (Letter, “Not my Savior,” May 19) — about the #MeToo movement, including many of our colleagues in Moscow, then speaks of the love of Jesus, his hypocrisy turns my stomach no less than the hypocrisy of my grandmother 60 years ago.
Jesus Christ is all about love. Period. Most everyone loves to cite the scripture that reads “He who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 8:7). But just 4 verses later, Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” True repentance is the turning away from sin, not repeating it. However, Jesus’ rejection of condemnation comes before he says “Go and sin no more” — essentially, repent.
It took me a good 15 years of dealing with that loving before repenting before I understood it well enough to be able to love God again. I can only hope Sumpter may also come to understand Jesus more deeply.
D’Wayne Hodgin
Moscow
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