Daily Lesson for September 3, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 8 verse 48:

[They] answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

There is a now infamous picture from a rally outside the Arkansas State Capitol protesting the integration of Central High School in Little Rock. There appear to be hundreds of white people in the crowd on the capitol steps. Two men are holding American flags and beside them others hold placards. One placard reads, "RACE MIXING IS COMMUNISM". Another placard says, "STOP THE RACE MIXING/MARCH OF THE ANTICHRIST".

There it is -- the most frequently employed and effective tool in casting aspersions upon the character of a person or movement. If you want to neutralize someone or some group there is nothing better than to call into question their patriotism and their godliness.  Say they don't love the country and they're of the devil.  It was done to Naboth, to Jeremiah, to Daniel, to Mordecai, to the Apostles, to Dietrich Bonhoffer, to Martin Luther King, Jr., and it was done to Jesus right there in today's lesson.

Be very suspicious when you're watching TV or reading Facebook posts and somebody calls into question someone else's patriotism and religion. People did the same thing to the prophets also.