I believe in God.  I believe in Heaven and hell.  I believe in the Ten Commandments---one being “Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.”  Now I’ll be the first to admit that’s not always easy to do because there are some people who do everything in their power to get on my last nerve.  But then I think they probably don’t know any better so I just forgive them and move on. 

So here we have former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms who died on July 4 at the ripe old age of 86.  He spent his entire political career as a hate monger and he was never ashamed or apologetic about it.  He was a master at creating fear in the hearts and minds of white, rural North Carolinians by pointing out the fact that if he weren’t in Congress to fight for their “white rights” black people would take over and take away everything they rightfully owned. 

Today, as I watched a portion of his funeral on TV, I heard the minister called him a good, decent man who loved God and loved the people he served for thirty years.  But what about the people he didn’t love?   

Does loving God—but hating minorities—give him a free pass into Heaven?  My pastor always says “How can you love a God whom you never see and despise your fellow man here on earth?”  That’s what Jesse did all of his life.   

And no, he didn’t have a come to Jesus moment right before his death---where he apologized for any past sins he may have committed.  He didn’t come out and issue a statement saying he loved everybody and was just playing the political game of the times.   

So tell me, where do people like Jesse go when they die?  Does he think he’ll enter a segregated Heaven?  Oh and wouldn’t it be something if God didn’t look anything like some churches paint Him out to be?