Wrangling

Sometimes, often times, as Christians I think in the modern era we are focused on the wrong stuff. Professionally and personally I came into contact with two court cases that have added to that mental wrangling.

This week I had the opportunity to talk with someone legally connected to the partial birth abortion decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. It basically upheld the ban on partial birth abortion. I won’t debate the facts of the case. However, I will point out that I read the opinion on the U.S. Supreme Court website and I will say that it is graphic and does make one rethink the theoretical nature of the debate. I will also say that it was seen as a victory for conservatives and in this case, conservative was closely tied to Christian conservatives.

In my expatriate state of Minnesota there has been a legal uproar over the possible installation of foot washing stations for Muslim students at the Minneapolis Technical and Community College. Again, without debating the merits the debate has largely centered on the term, “accommodation” and what is good for one religious group has to be provided for another. This time it is conservatives who seem to be blocking progress on this one and not making many friends in the Muslim community along the way.

Christians need to enter these debates thoughtfully. Clearly, Christ is on the side of life and since there is no other way than through Christ the foot washing stations are not Christian. However, what Christians need to be thoughtful about is how they use the courts and how they rely on the state as an entity.

I read this morning in Acts and I thought about how it was the persecution of the state that propelled the gospel into new areas, and I thought about how even Christ directed to give unto Caesar. Christians should be involved in the courts, politics, and other arenas. That is a great way for Christian to provide influence and leadership. However, Christ has to be bigger in our lives than our professions, no matter how noble those professions are. We must also be careful that we act in a way that promotes the justice that Christ himself promoted for all people in love so that they may see Christ in us and turn toward him. To what extent we as Christians let ourselves become a demographic, we do a disservice to the name of Jesus Christ and what he came to earth to do, which is to save individuals – not nations.