In April, my good friend and "pwipwi" Nasako visited to see the Pope; we worked it out so that we could also have a good catch-up visit after ten years.
Although I'm not Catholic, I agreed to join the crowds who gathered to see the Popemobile as it drove by Catholic University and, I'll admit, it was a good experience to hear the singing and to see the man who is arguably the most notable church leader in the world.
That didn't disturb me, but the hecklers did.
Bearing huge banners with the words, "You're going to hell," "Roman Catholicism is of the devil," etc., representatives who claimed to be from a group called Cry to God spoke through bullhorns to tell the crowd that we were all going to hell.
My friend is not known for her lack of strength and conviction, and I wasn't surprised when she started responding. Who wouldn't?
The biggest conflict came after the Pope had left and, as we made our way back to the Metro station, Nasako and I passed a few men who apparently had feelings similar to those of the hecklers; I don't know for sure if they were from the same organization.
One of them, then both of them, starting yelling at Nasako and me about going to hell, etc., and Nasako yelled back. Realizing that the conversation wouldn't get anywhere, she turned to go.
"You have no peace!" one of the men called behind her back (talk about bravery).
"Yes, she does," I said. "And thank you for being God! Only God can judge who goes to heaven or hell."
This threw him for a moment. "I'm not being God!" he said. Then he and his friend turned back to the more comfortable routine of shouting invective and shaking a Bible at me.
I told them I wasn't Catholic, but I don't think that mattered to them. They just kept yelling.
And even if I were Catholic, what good would yelling like this do? It saddened me because this is what some people think of when they think of faith--apparent lunatics yelling at people.
Whatever happened to speaking the truth in love? Some may have the gift of prophecy and may even be called to speak a harsher truth than others, but if they read the Bible they were pushing in my face, they'd see that no gift is worth anything without love.
I can't claim to always show love myself--sometimes I fail miserably. As a matter of fact, I'm trying hard as I write this not to do the same judging I said the men along the Pope's route were doing.
I'm not sure if I've succeeded in that, but I do want to say this: can we stop the hatin'?
