The Rt. Rev. Scott B. Hayashi, Episcopal Bishop of Utah, is a smiler.
He loves to laugh, and those who know him best say he can tell a joke with the best of them.
But there is one form of humor that always puts a frown on his face.
“I don’t like jokes that are hateful toward any one group, especially jokes that are hateful toward a religious group,” he said. “In my baptismal covenant I pledged that I would ”˜work for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being.’ Statements of hate, regardless of who they are generated against or how humorously they are intended, are not part of what it means to me to be faithful as an Episcopalian. So I say, don’t do it.”
For many, many jokes, an individual or group is usually the target. Most of these joke usually paint the individual or group with a very broad brush and can be quite demeaning. This has the tendency to harden our hearts towards these individuals or groups, and thus less willing to extend the Gospel to them. Not a good thing, that.
He, he – Matthew 23 not a go-to passage then?