The name Gabriel Hostin may not ring a bell but in a minute, you’ll connect the dots. On June 16, 24-year-old Gabriel was out for an evening run in New Rochelle, NY, an inner suburb on NYC. An athlete and former Junior Olympian, he frequently would go out running. The problem on this day was that he was caught running along some Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) tracks. He saw a gravel incline and thought it was open to the public since the gates were open. However, there was a sign on the other side of the open gate that said, “No Trespassing.”
When officers stopped Hostin and told him that he was trespassing, he did what any reasonable 24-year-old would do. He called his mommy. Who is his mommy, you ask? She is Sunny Hostin, one of the hosts on The View.
Why would he call her? That’s the question that came to my mind. I didn’t know that she was a lawyer, a graduate of Notre Dame Law School, former trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division, and a former federal prosecutor who specialized in child sex crimes. She seems more than qualified to handle a trespassing citation.
Forget the fact that Sunny is as liberal as they come and has allegedly said that she feels “unsafe around American flags.” When she arrived on the scene, she asked, “Do you know who I am? My name is Sunny Hostin and I’m one of the co-hosts of ‘The View’ and I’m a former federal prosecutor’.” 1, 2
Well, whoop-de-do!
Galatians 6:3 says, “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”
Someone might jump to the defense of Hostin and ask, “Are you saying that she is
nothing?” I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying that we are all nothing and I’m putting myself in that category. This is not a statement about our value or worth as a human. It’s an acknowledgement that we all put our pants on the same way – one leg at a time. And it’s a denunciation of all who would think that the world should fawn over them, catering to them, and treating them like a celebrity.
Psychology talks about those who have an “inferiority complex.” I think that just the opposite is true. Humanity tends to have a superiority complex exacerbated by money, fame, title, power, and position. Ephesians 5:29 tells us, “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.” There’s a lot of flesh cherishing people out there!
Superiority complexes exist even among the Christians. The church at Corinth had this problem and wanted to be sure that they aligned themselves with the “who’s who” of Christianity. That’s why we read 1 Corinthians 3:4-7. “For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? (5) Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? (6) I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. (7) So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” The church of Corinth were name droppers, believing that they were something special if they could identify with a particular Christian “celebrity.”
We have no foundation upon which to base personal pride. We can’t walk around pretending to be something and a “somebody” when we are really nothing. As a child of God, the Bible says that we are to walk “humbly,” not proudly (Micah 6:8). That means I will not throw my name around, thinking that it ought to have clout.
By the way, PREACHERS can develop this complex. When we came back in 1994, there was a preacher in town who had no problem using Sunny Hostin’s line in order to get items tax exempt. This preacher was buying for personal use, telling the clerks that the church tax exempt status covered them as well. No, it does not! I shared that with the cashier.
Romans 12:3 gives instruction for every person. May we heed it very carefully and remember that there is only one name that has significance and power in life. It’s the name of Jesus. “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”
1https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/general/sunny-hostin-asks-cops-do-you-know-who-i-am-after-son-s-ny-trespass/ss-AA27SBSZ?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=6a576ed33e9a4da4a01f4e6999c313ba&ei=29#image=2
2https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15987103/Sunny-Hostin-son-arrest-bodycam-Gabriel-trespassing-View.html
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