Disturbed by increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric

I write on behalf of my colleague pastors and leaders of congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Whatcom County. As leaders in faith communities, we are disturbed by the increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric in both public and private spheres.

We stand in solidarity with our Muslim sisters and brothers and with people of all faiths. All religious and philosophical traditions demand that life be treated with dignity and respect. As Lutheran Christians, we hold fast to the understanding that God’s wondrous creation is intentionally diverse and complex and that Jesus Christ has freed us for lives of love and service.

We don’t simply love and serve people who are like us or with whom we agree. In fact, God’s call is to those people or places who seem, at first glance, different or “other.” In engagement across human boundaries of creed, race and culture, we become more fully ourselves: children of God, living in community with all of God’s beloved creation. In this view, there is no space for sweeping stereotypes or violence; each person and each moment are approached with curiosity and openness.

The great challenges of our time call for great creativity and collaboration, and as long as we uphold our common humanity and dignity, we will rise.

This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Disturbed by increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric."