Interesting, the past two days I have read articles that have aroused some passion in me to respond to the "politics" of our country. Then this morning in Ladies Bible Class our lesson was from Philip Yancey's book "What's So Amazing About Grace" and today's chapter was about extending grace in the political arena. There were a lot of thought provoking comments and too many to post here, but as a summary here are a couple of points I came away with:
- it is not my job to purge evil from the world. God can handle that on His own.
-My job is to be the aroma of Christ. So while I may not agree with the "politics" of someone, there is a way to stand up for my beliefs in a way that extends grace to the politician, judge, etc. -The cause should never be more important than the person, because that is what is eternal. So I need to make sure I am saying things in a way that still respects the person and extends the love and grace of Jesus.
So that being said how should I respond to the following article?
"The Supreme Court won't review a lower-court decision that banned a high school football coach from bowing his head and "taking a knee" during prayers led by his players.
Marcus Borden had hoped to overturn an appeals court ruling that upheld the East Brunswick, New Jersey, school district's policy barring him and other staff from joining in student-led prayer. But the court on Monday refused to take his appeal.
The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the school district policy is constitutional, but the judges differed on what exactly a coach should do if his team prays. Borden, the East Brunswick coach since 1983, had a long history of leading prayers before he was ordered to stop.
John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, which represented Borden, said Monday's ruling could have a chilling effect on other coaches who want to show respect while their teams pray."
I am not sure how government can control what individuals choose to do before a game? I can understand how a coach could not force his players to pray with him, or show favoritism to those that do. But to say he cannot pray with boys that are already praying? So...I don't know what I can do in an instance like this. But it just seems like I should do something?? What would you do??
In the meantime I will leave you today with a quote from Yancey's book that really caused me to think. "While a coziness between the church and the state may be good for the state, it is bad for the church. Herein lies the chief danger to grace: the state, which runs by the rules of ungrace, gradually drowns out the church's sublime message of grace.....A state government can shut down stores and theaters on Sunday, but it cannot compel worship. It can arrest and punish KKK murders, but it cannot cure their hatred, much less teach them to love. It can pass laws to make divorce more difficult, but cannot force husbands to love their wives and wives their husbands. It can give subsidies to the poor but cannot force the rich to show them compassion and justice. It can ban adultery but not lust, theft but not covetousness, cheating but not pride. It can encourage virtue but not holiness."
1 comment:
I have to admit that politics in this country is one of the things that aggravates me......a lot. I understand because schools are state run institutions they can legislate what one can and cant do during school sponsored activities. The coach can still pray with his team, just not in a way that is identifiable, i.e, don't get down on his knee and don't bow his head. I think God would understand. When I think about it, I am more upset at the person who started all this; taking the matter to court and wasting taxpayers time and money just to keep one person down.
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