Two news stories in the past few days have really upset me. I try to stay measured in my initial responses to these stories, but these two have really gotten to me.
Nineteen elementary school students and two of their teachers in a small town in Texas are murdered by a teenager who legally bought two military style assault rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition right after his 18th birthday and killed defenseless children and teachers with such force that one needed DNA samples to identify some of them. This guy cannot legally buy alcohol, but he can buy AR-15s and thirty clips of ammo without any problems. The NRA and most Republicans on Capitol Hill say this now dead teenager had a sacred right to buy, own and lawfully use this assault rifle. That right evidently overrides the right of the students to safety and life itself. Forget the grief of the families, the snuffing out of young lives, keep those assault rifles on the sales racks. They are as American as apple pie.
The rest of the world thinks we are crazy, and I must reluctantly agree. Common sense has long ago been a victim of the gun lobby. Shame on all the “bought and paid for” politicians who offer up thoughts and prayers but refuse to even debate sensible gun laws that three quarters of Americans support, like universal background checks, a ban on military style assault weapons, and waiting periods for certain firearms purchases. May God protect us from ourselves, and a broken system where politicians represent special interest groups that fund them rather than the people who elect them.
The Republicans have lost their claim to support the “right to life.” Once they are born, the children are no longer a priority for many abortion opponents. All the mass killings in our schools and in most of the other venues have been committed by persons under age 21 using assault rifles. Truth be told, many of these disturbed individuals were victims of bullying in school systems that often failed to intervene to stop such senseless harassment of children. See what is happening? We are creating and then arming badly broken souls who attack the places where they were bullied. They are cowards, to be sure. Some plan to die, in what could be called “suicide by police.” Listen to our outgunned law enforcement personnel. They are pleading for our political leaders to help get these assault rifles off the streets. If we fail them, we fail ourselves. If you have young children or grandchildren, say your prayers, fervently and often.
The second story came close to home. Lawyers for the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, former colleagues from 15 years back when I was General Counsel to the Convention’s International Mission Board, systematically protected known sexual predator pastors and other church staffers from being publicly identified and held accountable. Why? Why did they fail to respond to victims who sought help? The answer is simple. They were concerned about being held liable for the actions of leaders and employees of their member churches. The Southern Baptist Convention is organized in a way that local churches are autonomous, and they are not subject to control by the Convention. So, the argument went, if they act as if they have control, their protective veil will be damaged, and millions of dollars that could have been spent sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with unbelievers will be diverted to pay victims and their lawyers who sue the SBC.
Somewhere along the line they, along with many evangelical Christians in this country, lost sight of the fact that the Gospel is not a fire insurance policy that is sold to members of the unbelieving public just so they will escape the fires of hell and have eternal life with Jesus. Yes, it is about eternal life, but it is also about drawing on the power of Jesus to enable living and loving as Jesus taught His followers, about protecting the defenseless, about selfless service to others. Jesus cares much more about how we love and protect others than how often we attend church, or how we vote, whom we love, or how many missionaries we send.
The end that SBC leaders sought to serve simply did not justify their means. I know the pressures to avoid adverse publicity. They are real. But thank the Lord, faithful delegates to last year’s annual SBC Convention voted to reject the recommendations of their leaders and demand accountability through ordering an outside investigation. And now we have the report, and it is time to see whether the culture will really change. Ironically, the end the leaders sought to serve (protecting programs to share the Gospel with non-believers around the world) has been severely damaged by conduct that flies in the face of the teachings of Jesus. This just gives those on the outside another reason to reject any consideration of becoming a Christian. What a tragedy. It’s not enough that evangelicals have so closely identified with the political agenda of the far right, now our institutional hypocrisy is multiplied many fold. May God forgive us!
Years ago, when I was serving the Lord in Central Asia, people living in the countryside claimed to believe that "Baptists" killed babies and drank their blood. This was a fruit of a many centuries old slander of followers of Christ by the Roman Emperor Nero, who also blamed those same followers for lighting the fire that burned a good bit of Rome. Now we have a second barrier to deal with. Baptists will now be known as protecting sexual predators in their midst. Another reason not to join their ranks. Finally, we are aligned with the Roman Catholics in something significant. Again, what a tragedy! Pray for the faithful missionaries all over the world that now have yet another barrier to overcome.
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