The pastor who delivered an Easter service sermon to President Obama on Sunday waded into political territory, issuing a rebuke for the religious right who pined for the days of old.
“I hear all the time the expression ’the good old days.’ Well, the good old days, we forget they have been good for some, but they weren’t good for everybody,” said Dr. Luis Leon, an Episcopal pastor at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., as CBS reported.
Don’t live in the past, he said.
“It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling people back … for blacks to be back in the back of the bus, for women to be back in the kitchen, for gays to be in the closet and for immigrants to be on their side of the border,” he said.
The pastor then suggested views that hearkened back to past days were contrary to the teachings of Jesus.
“What you and I understand,” he said, as quoted by CBS, “is that when Jesus says, ’You can’t hang onto me,’ he says, ’You know it’s not about the past, it’s not about the before, it’s not about the way things were, but about the way things can be in the now.’ “
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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