By their fruits…

Much has been made of the Christians who endorsed, campaigned and voted for, Roy Moore. The charges made against him are troubling and his actions reprehensible since he never directly denied them. And the accusers are extremely credible.

It is rather disappointing, if not downright unfathomable, that any true Christian would support this man for a position as a public servant. It hurts Christianity and its believers. Jesus cannot be too happy about it either.

The quote from Jesus, “By their fruits will you know them” particularly resonates with me here. When people are dismissive of the value of another human being, you can clearly identify bad fruit. When a person preys upon the young, powerless, and those unsure of how to defend themselves – that’s bad fruit. When someone abuses and disregards the dignity of other people, we know that’s bad fruit.

If you believe it’s okay to follow someone who produces nothing but bitter, rotten fruit, it is time to do some soul searching. It’s past time to pray to be brought back to Jesus’ Way, Truth, and Life.

A compassionate person who respects other people no matter their station in life or their gender is easily identified as a follower of Christ. That’s a Christian way. I don’t know what to call Moore or his supporters. I won’t comment on Moore; this is not a political post. But I do know his supporters can be characterized as misled or even sheep without a shepherd. I’m not sure how that happened, but I don’t have any other explanation if they are truly Christ followers.

There are many men who are being accused and revealed for the reprehensible ways they have treated women lately. No others have had Christians rally around them. But Moore found some. And it doesn’t make sense.

I think that it would be good for those misguided Christians to seek forgiveness for their errors in judgment from their fellow Christians, and from the aggrieved women, who were girls at the time. And then from the Triune God they profess to follow. I’m not judging as Jesus tells us not to judge, lest we be judged. But I do believe God also endowed us with a mind to reason and to observe, to make informed decisions to help us follow Him. We are supposed to tell our brothers and sisters when they’ve erred. That’s Scriptural, too (see 1 Corinthians, 5: 1-13).

We should all respect the dignity of every other human person. We are all made in the image and likeness of God and we all are worthy of respect. We deserve that as His children.

There’s a different kind of fruit I’ll be praying for these lost souls to obtain: the fruits of the Holy Spirit. These are as observable as the bad fruit, but much more fulfilling and rewarding.

*The fruits of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.