{"id":8900,"date":"2011-11-30T09:30:46","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T15:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/?p=8900"},"modified":"2011-11-30T09:32:55","modified_gmt":"2011-11-30T15:32:55","slug":"labels-lie-destroy-labels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/labels-lie-destroy-labels\/","title":{"rendered":"Labels Lie. Destroy Labels."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
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\nLast week I spoke at First Baptist Wolfe City on the topic of love — Love as a weapon to destroy evil. (you can read my notes here<\/a> or view my deck here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

While it wasn’t the focal point of my message, I shared with them several stories on how labels were allowed to define people.<\/p>\n

Labels that gave people an excuse for not loving one another.<\/p>\n

Labels that allowed people to de-humanize others.<\/p>\n

Labels that when removed, suddenly changed people’s hearts towards one another.<\/p>\n

You see when we slap a label on something – it’s suddenly known by that label. <\/p>\n

It’s no longer just a tablet computer, it’s an “Apple iPad.” <\/p>\n

It’s no longer just a car, it’s now a “Cadillac.”<\/p>\n

And the labels work in reverse as well.<\/p>\n

It’s no longer reliable transportation, it’s suddenly “smelly public transportation.”<\/p>\n

It’s no longer a filling nutritious meal, it’s suddenly “cheap hole in the wall restaurant.”<\/p>\n

And when we apply labels to people, they’re no longer human beings made in the image of their creator (just like we are)…<\/p>\n

They’re suddenly…<\/p>\n

Slut.<\/p>\n

Whore.<\/p>\n

Adulterer.<\/p>\n

Divorced.<\/p>\n

Cheat.<\/p>\n

Liar.<\/p>\n

Crook.<\/p>\n

Abuser.<\/p>\n

Homosexual.<\/p>\n

Homophobic.<\/p>\n

Drunk.<\/p>\n

Teetotaler.<\/p>\n

Republican.<\/p>\n

Democrat.<\/p>\n

American.<\/p>\n

Islamic.<\/p>\n

Conservative.<\/p>\n

Liberal.<\/p>\n

Us.<\/p>\n

Them.<\/p>\n

Just like sorting your clothes or tools, applying labels to people allows us to categorize them and put them in boxes — giving some a special place in our lives and pushing others to the back of the line.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the stories I shared, labels like German, black, militant, KKK, racist, enemy and murderer all came up.<\/p>\n

And in each story — the people involved had a choice.<\/p>\n

They could either define others by the labels, accept the labels given to them by others, or ignore the labels all together and love regardless.<\/p>\n

Most chose love<\/a> in the end. One did not<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And today, I’m left with the same decision.<\/p>\n

Will I accept the labels people give me? Will I allow labels to define others?<\/p>\n

Or will I move beyond the labels? Destroy the labels and realize that love wins and labels lie?<\/p>\n

Will I be an Insurgent of Love? Or one who simply lives by the labels?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We can all<\/em> move beyond the labels.<\/p>\n

We can all realize that labels lie and destroy the labels.<\/p>\n

We can all work to create a better world – built around love, forgiveness, grace and second chances.<\/p>\n

Another world IS<\/em> possible — but the choice is up to each of us.<\/p>\n

Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.<\/em> Colossians 3:11<\/p>\n

What labels have you been hurt by?<\/h3>\n

Want more? See the awesome “Labels Lie” campaign at potsc.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":8901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[560,18],"tags":[4292,4291,872,498,1599,4219,4290,4293],"class_list":["post-8900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-faith","tag-de-humanize","tag-humanize","tag-labels","tag-love","tag-love-wins","tag-potsc","tag-second-chances","tag-wolfe-city"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-content\/uploads\/Labels-Lie1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-2jy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}