“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it” John 1:5 (NLT)
This past Sunday at Johnston Chapel, we celebrated Baptism of the Lord Sunday by not only talking about His baptism but by reaffirming our baptismal vows. In the United Methodist Church, these vows are considered central to our commitment to God, to the church, and to the world in which we are called to serve. One of the questions the pastor asks the candidate(s) is, “Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin?” A follow up question is, “Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?”[1]
These vows are much more than just part of a ritual or liturgy. The vows are meant to be taken seriously and personally. It says that we reject the evil of this world and reject injustice and oppression of people no matter how we find them. With God’s help we seek to be made perfect in love, which means there is no room or tolerance for hatred of any kind in the life of a disciple.
As United Methodists, we stand against bigotry of all kinds, including antisemitism. We believe that antisemitic acts are evil – in other words, sin – and we do not tolerate these acts. Throughout our history, we have condemned these acts both through statements from individuals, from churches and through resolutions adopted by numerous sessions of General Conference. We stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters, acknowledge our common spiritual heritage, the Jewishness of Jesus and the apostles, and that we are called, along with our Jewish neighbors, to work for peace and justice in the world that was created by God.[2]
I remind us of these vows and of the stance of the United Methodist Church on our Jewish neighbors considering a tragedy that occurred at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi. Early Saturday morning, a fire was reported at the synagogue and caused extensive damage to portions of the building, destroying artifacts and sacred objects including two Torahs. A suspect has been arrested and, presumably, the motivation was antisemitism.[3] Unfortunately, this has happened before, as Beth Israel and other synagogues in Mississippi were the targets of bombings by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s.
As a Christian and as a pastor, I can not condemn this act strongly enough. I stated from the pulpit yesterday that there is no room for hate in the church or in civilized society. I stand by that statement. Hate is a sin. Unfortunately, there seems to be a rise in hateful language online. I can’t go a single day without finding bigoted comments being made on links to stories such as the fire at Beth Israel Congregation. While some of these comments are made by foreign troll accounts, many clearly are from real people. I find this disturbing, especially as many of these people claim to be Christians.
I can’t imagine a level of hate rising to the point of destroying sacred spaces or even killing simply because someone practices a different religion or because of the color of their skin or because of where they come from. While I can’t comprehend this level of hate, I have seen the devastation and the ugly scars that remain by these acts. Originally, I’m from Philadelphia, Mississippi a town that has a history of acts perpetrated due to hate. While Philadelphia and other towns like it have moved forward in many ways, acts of hate like the Beth Israel fire remind us that we still have much work to do.
We are taught in scripture that all people are made in God’s image and I don’t recall any qualifiers to that.
If you would like to donate to Beth Israel Congregation and help with their rebuilding project, go here. (I have verified that this link is legit)
[1] https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/book-of-worship/the-baptismal-covenant-i
[2] https://www.umc.org/en/content/book-of-resolutions-united-methodist-guiding-principles-for-christian-jewish-relations
[3] https://mississippitoday.org/2026/01/12/mississippi-synagogue-fire-suspect-named/