Jesus calls us to love our enemies, not create more, like Trump is doing

Thank you for keeping us on our toes by publishing editorials that challenge us.

At first blush, the editorials printed next to each other in a recent issue of The Sun News - “SC should be prepared for Zika virus outbreak” and “What do Myrtle Beach-area faith leaders have to say about Trump's bigotry?” - seem not to be connected.

However, they are.

The U.S. representative I worked for represented a district in Atlanta that was home to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I grew to have a great deal of respect for the people who work there. They are some of the most dedicated public servants I've ever known. When they say there is an impending health crisis and we need resources to answer it, believe them.

I once had a tour of the CDC facility and found myself looking through very thick glass at the “hot room.” The hot room contains samples of small pox, ebola, bubonic plague, etc. Scientists wearing “space suits” were working on vaccines for this or that dangerous disease.

The CDC's effort to combat the Zika virus needs to be fully funded. It does not take long for epidemics to happen. And if the Zika virus takes off, the cost in human suffering and in the money required to care for the children impacted will be many times larger than the requested funding.

The Zika virus knows no borders. And that brings us to Mr Trump. The challenges we face as a nation, and as part of the community of nations, require us to learn to live together as sisters and brothers. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, we learn to live together or we will perish together. Trump has a knack for pitting one group of people against another group of people. That is not only theologically wrong - we are all equal as children of God - but we need one another to deal with war, poverty, disease and dangers to the environment.

I'm a retired Presbyterian minister and hope that faith leaders will remind people during this election season that we stand against powers and principalities, among them bigotry and hate for the “other.”

Jesus asked us to love our enemies, love those who threaten us. In doing so, he reminded us that we are called to not do and say things that would give others cause to label us as enemies.

Thank you again for helping us to ponder important things.

This story was originally published June 16, 2016 at 11:44 AM with the headline "Jesus calls us to love our enemies, not create more, like Trump is doing."