When I was a child, one of our favorite Sunday School choruses was this.

Jesus love the little children,
all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
they are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

The song still rings true, even if much of the conservative white church has added, "as long as they keep to their place and don't get uppity."

I do not say "evangelical church", because an Evangelical is one who trusts in the gospel (evangelium), the good news of Jesus Christ. That includes me.

Jesus inaugurated his public ministry by quoting from the prophet Isaiah.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."

As I read through the Bible each year, I am more and more drawn to the Hebrew prophets.

After condemning the people of Judah for abandoning the Lord God, Ezekiel adds,

Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says’—when the Lord has not spoken. The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice.

Micah point us to the right path.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

But we have abandoned the gospel of love and put our hope in a gospel of hate.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on our nation, for we have sinned grievously against you.