I was working out Monday evening when a strange text came to my phone. A friend thought he was saying something funny about the news of the day. The problem was I had not heard the news of the day.
He texted: “Houston would like to get a copy of all your sermons to review to make sure you are not preaching anything that is not tolerant of everyone.”
I texted back: “I must have missed something today.”
At that point he brought me up to date.
The city of Houston, Texas, a nice place and the nation’s fourth largest metro area, has issued subpoenas to a group of pastors requesting sermons they’ve preached which refer to homosexuality, gender identity, or mention of Annise Parker, the city’s openly lesbian mayor.
Maybe you are responding as I did.
Surely this is a joke and this can’t be happening. This is America.
It’s not a joke, and it’s certainly not American.
All of this has been playing out in Houston for the last year. The city council passed a new non-discrimination ordinance in June which would allow, among many other clauses, men to use the women’s room and vice versa. This was done purportedly to protect transgender rights.
Pastors, and the people of Houston, generally protested this ordinance. The pastors were part of the opponents of the law who gathered 50,000 signatures in opposition. Now the city council seems to be using its power to bully the pastors.
How do we respond to such blatant abuse of power?
The New Testament gives us a template to follow. Soon after the ascension, Peter and John were arrested for teaching about the resurrection of Christ. They showed us the relationship between earthly authority and heavenly authority (Acts 3-4).
First, we should get involved. On November 4 we have the opportunity to vote. Remember that elections have consequences. The citizens of Houston are learning this lesson. Let us learn from them and not make the same mistake.
Christians should vote, and they should vote their values.
Second, we can be good, law abiding citizens. Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, carefully noted that the followers of Christ were good citizens. They were not trying to harm the Roman Empire; they were trying to make it better.
Finally, we can stand up to abuse of authority. Peter and John brought healing to a man who could not walk. The authorities amazingly didn’t care about the man, but they cared about what Peter and John were saying about Jesus and the authorities. Peter and John responded: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).
The City of God takes precedence over the City of Houston. As the Manhattan Declaration so eloquently states: “We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesars’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.”
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7 Responses
Are not the pastors and church members protected by the separation of “church and state”?
The first amendment was passed to protect religion from the state, not the state from religion.
In the First Amendment, the subject of both the establishment clause and the free exercise clause is Congress, not the church. It says nothing regarding what the church can or cannot do, should or should
not do. While the words “separation of church and state” do not appear in the U.S. Constitution, and their actual origin should be of interest to Baptists, the larger problem seems to be the separation of God, not only from government, but from every phase of life, both public and private. What a challenge!
Elijah Craig was chairman of the Baptist Committee of Correspondence which met with the colonial legislators of Virginia and made an agreement that in exchange for their freedom to practice their faith, the Baptist ministers would encourage the young men in their communities to enlist in the Patriots’ Cause. Interestingly enough, in a volume of the DAR, I found listed a colonial regiment in which every member bore the last name Craig. Could that have been the result of Elijah’s efforts or of his relatives James and Lewis or all three? Of course, we know that a Scottish clan was an extended family (I have two of them in my family tree, the Bankstons and the Craigs. My grandmother and grandfather who raised me were Bankstons, and she bore as her maiden name Craig which she bestowed on my son who is now my pastor). It does suggest that Baptists were so involved that they took up arms. Where was the IRS then?
“But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.””
AMEN!
We pray.
We must remember that same sex couples are children of God and American citizens. The pastors are protected by the First Amendment but keep in mind that all American citizens are protected from discrimination through the Fourteenth Amendment. From what I understand the pastors in question were indoctrinating their congregations with sermons of hate and violence towards same sex couples; this is a form of discrimination. The City of Houston was required by law to step in and investigate, they only subpoenaed sermons from the alleged pastors after members of their congregation reported it. This is what makes America such a unique and amazing country- everyone regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation is protected equally under the law. We must not forget that we are a diverse union built from people and faiths from around the world. We should strive to teach love and acceptance rather than hate and bigotry.
Dill, thanks for reading and commenting. I feel certain we can all view/hear their sermons online. These would be public to anyone. I would be very disappointed if they were sermons of hate and violence.