What is Hospitality? (Part 2)

[If you have not done so, read Part 1!]

Consider the fact too that “hospitality” comes from the word “hospital.” Recall the story of when Jesus was spending time with Matthew the tax collector, the Scripture recounts the following: “[B]ehold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick”(Matt. 9:10-12). Likewise, it is not the rich and wealthy who need hospitality but the needy, the stranger, the widow, the orphan. It is the foreigner that needs a host, the homeless that needs a place to stay.

And when we love the stranger, Scripture tells us, it may well be we are unknowingly offering our home to an angel (Heb 13:2) or perhaps even to Christ himself (Matt 25:31-40)! God does not afford us the certainty to distinguish when we are serving man or serving Christ, nor does he offer this as an option. For any man that does not love his brother cannot love God (1 Jn 2:10-11) and any man who does not love the stranger, orphan, and widow is clueless about the definition of religion (James 1:27). Everything is spiritual: there is no distinguishing between the sacred and secular, the divine and material, the glorious and the mundane. For when you see the face of the stranger, you see the face of God.

Consequently, however, we are not a people who know how to practice philoxenia (at least not very well). Rather, we have traded the practice of philoxenia for a culure of xenophobia. Fear (and capitalism) is what drives our home security systems, fenced in homes, and exorbitantly private lives. Fear is what sells our newspapers and drives our political policies. Rather than a culture of welcoming the stranger, we have a cult(ivating)ure of fear.

We have been led to believe that anything foreign ought to be feared (and use baseless notions to keep this idea alive), and we enjoy speaking in derogatory terms about anyone who is not like us (the fortifying aspect of community). “Those Mexicans” are going to steal our jobs and force us to all learn Spanish, we tell ourselves, to we should ship them off. “Those Middle Eastern” people better not come to our city, because they’re probably terrorists. “Those black people” better not move into our neighborhood or all the houses will become foreclosed. “Those homosexuals” better not come nearby or they’re likely to molest my children. Lies that contribute to a culture of xenophobia.

This culture of xenophobia is no more clearly seen than in our two-year (and almost over) heated presidential campaign. Numerous Republicans have utilized countless fear tactics to try to deter people from voting for Barack Obama. They have chanted his middle name “Hussein” in order to incite distrust and fear into America and make him into the “Other.” They have fabricated lies that Obama is a Muslim (which, by the way, when has being a Muslim been a smear tactic?). In fact, Rush Limbaugh went so far to say that Obama was not American but was an Arab (codeword for “Muslim,” which is a codeword for “terrorist”) and came from an Arab part of Africa. This is not only the continuation of a culture of fear, but its simply not true – Kenya (even though Obama is NOT “from” Kenya) is in sub-Saharan Africa, where the national language is English and 90% of its population identify themselves as Christian.

Obama has been said to pal around with terrorists, has been called a socialist (and if Obama is a socialist, then FDR must have been a reincarnated Karl Marx!), a Marxist, a communist, un-American (i.e., not White), has been called scary, unpatriotic, untrustworthy, suspicious, too radical, too risky, too liberal, and a whole number of other things. All of these comments have been made in order to scare the hell out of people and convince them that Obama is not one of us, is a stranger, is not a promoter of American (i.e. White) values, and that we ought to do everything (motivated by fear) to shore up our walls against him and anyone else that isn't just like us.

Christian leaders particularly have sunk to a new low when it comes to promoting a culture of xenophobia (and slander, I might add). Dr. James Dobson and Focus on the Family published a futuristic letter from 2012 that describes what four years of an Obama presidency has been like. The letter describes America as a place where pornography is freely displayed, euthanasia is a common practice, crime runs rampant because of Obama's view on gun laws, America has frequent blackouts because of such high environmental standards, has endured another four terrorist attacks, where homeschooling has been banned, where Christian doctors have been forced to perform abortions or be fired, and where Christians are emigrating to Australia and New Zealand in order to live by their convictions. Dobson even goes so far as to say that its the "younger evangelicals" fault that these things happened because they could have chosen not to vote for Obama. Others have said that a Christian simply can’t vote for Obama, or for any Democrat, and it is a sin to do so (and may wind you up in hell). Lies and fear tactics. As Jim Wallis says, Dr. Dobson owes Christians an apology.

This political turn in this essay is not meant to convince you to vote for Obama, and nor is it to say Obama is innocent of a negative campaign or saying un-hospitable statements (when he says “America is the last best hope for the world,” he is not being very friendly or welcoming or hospitable to all the other great people around the globe). But in the area of cultivating xenophobia, that simply hasn't been Obama's main tactic, because, frankly its difficult to arouse fear in people when your opponent is part of the traditional majority (e.g., white males). I believe there are plenty of good reasons not to vote for Obama and plenty of good reasons not to vote for McCain and godly Christians will go into the voting booth tomorrow and vote for one or the other because of their convictions (or for a 3rd-party candidate!).

Rather, my point is to say, as Christians we ought to be developing a culture of philoxenia and not xenophobia, so please do not allow fear tactics to determine how you vote. If you are going to vote this year, use your head and mind and don't just listen to all the sound bytes going around. Vote by your convictions. Don’t abstain from voting for McCain because you’re sick of him calling everyone his friend or because you’re tired of Palin’s fake Minnesota accent. And don’t abstain from voting for Obama simply because he has big ears or is black. In other words, don’t be stupid and ridiculous. Spend some time thinking about what vote will be most beneficial for the common good of not only America, but the world entire.