The Theology of George Thorogood

I walked forty seven miles of barbed wire, I got a cobra snake for a neck tie

A brand new house on the roadside, and it's made out of rattlesnake hide

A got a chimney brand new chimney put up top, and its made out of human skulls

Come on baby take a walk with me and tell me who do you love?

Who do you love?

                                       - George Thorogood

I've asked this question of myself these days:  Who do I love?  Certainly my family and close friends. Outside of that, it turns out most of the people I love look a lot like me:  white, Christian, middle-class, Midwesterners.  I would further describe the people I love as "good people" and by most human measures, they are: good citizens who work hard, who vote and pay their taxes, who have a good family and good kids.  Many attend church.  I go to dinner with them and  have coffee with them and talk about the things good, Christian, tax-paying, white, family men talk about.  You know, those kinds of things. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.  Who wouldn't want to be in the presence of good people?  I think that it's perfectly normal.  

The trouble with normal behavior is that followers of Christ are supposed to be peculiar.

When Jesus walked the Earth, he loved others like no other person had done before.  He latched on to the most marginalized people of his day:  tax collectors, thieves, prostitutes, adulterers, the demon-possessed, the ethnically hated, the physically unclean (lepers and the physically disfigured.)  Regardless of whether they attained this status by their own actions or by Providence, these people were all considered the lowest of the low.  

The people Jesus loved were more than unloved, they were often those the society in His time simply despised. 

Societies have despised various groups from time to time throughout history Blacks, Jews, homosexuals ... the list goes on and on and on.  Regardless of when Jesus would have entered into our History, I know He would have loved and would have shown compassion to them all.

Who are the despised today?  Child Abusers?  Drug dealers? Sex offenders? Terrorists? Frauds?   
Who do I love?  That's easy.

Perhaps the question I should ask myself is,"Who might I or my society despise today, and how can I find a way to show them the Love of  Christ?"