There’s a famous scene in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe where Mr. Beaver, one of many talking animals in the land of Narnia, explains to the human children who Aslan the lion is. As Mr. Beaver speaks of Aslan’s greatness, one of the children, Susan, asks a rather uncomfortable question: “Is he safe?” I love the beaver’s reply:
Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.
Throughout the Narnia books, Aslan is a stand-in for Jesus, and this throwaway line of dialogue between Susan and Mr. Beaver makes a profound statement about what it means to follow Jesus. There’s a certain wildness to the love of Jesus, and it frequently led Jesus and his disciples into dangerous situations. Following Jesus results in persecution and death on an uncomfortably regular basis in the Bible— not to mention all our long-held beliefs and biases that Jesus’s style of love compels us to reexamine. Becoming like Jesus is the whole aim of the Christian religion, but this path is not necessarily safe. Jesus calls us to a revolutionary love, and with revolution, there is always some modicum of danger and conflict and change.
When I look at the state of Christianity in America,
especially Evangelical Christianity,
I can’t help but wonder if we’ve settled for safety at the expense of love.
As I look at the strange list of things that we’ve labeled as “unsafe,”
I wonder how often the fear of danger
motivates us more
than the love of neighbor
and where we might be missing clear promptings to serve something greater.
In my time as a youth minister, I regularly saw some teenagers ostracized because —whether due to their sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, behavioral problems, or other issues— people perceived them as “unsafe.” These youth were rough around the edges, having been treated poorly much of their lives and desperately needing acceptance instead of the halfhearted “I know they need to be here, but…” rhetoric that followed them from church to church. Thankfully, many of our volunteers and students looked past those fears and chose to love.
Today, as a chaplain to homeless people, I frequently bump up against the stereotype that my clients are “unsafe,” and this assumption becomes an excuse not to spend time with them. In reality, homeless people may have some rough edges, but they are far more likely to be the victims of crime than the perpetrators of it. People are afraid because our homeless folks are different, but the teams at Church Without Walls, Swaim UMC, Clara White Mission, and the Sulzbacher Center look past these fears and choose to love.
And then there’s the refugee issue. Again, the people seeking access to America are fleeing terror and persecution in their homelands, but in the name of protecting this country, we look at the most vulnerable and label them “unsafe.” We don’t stop and listen to these refugees, hear their stories, and maybe ask why it is that other countries continue to welcome them with open arms. Countries like France and Uganda have been the victims of terror themselves, but they see the call to protect refugees as too important to close off their borders. Refugees coming to America are even more extensively vetted than the ones going to these other nations; for us, there is little, if any, risk to accepting these people, and yet our leaders hide behind the issue of safety. We must continue to plead with our elected officials to look past unfounded fears and choose to love. “America first” shouldn’t mean “love second,” and besides, it’s supposed to be “God first” anyway.
These are just a few examples from my own experience though. Sadly, our culture (especially our religious culture) is brimming with examples of people choosing safety over love.
This is not what Jesus taught.
This is not how Jesus lived.
Jesus showed us that love is worth the risk,
or as a loquacious beaver once put it,
Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.