H. Henry Williams

10 Commandments for Voting

These are the 10 Commandments from the message this weekend. They result from my study of the passage and make the most sense in the context of the message. You can listen to when it is posted on iTunes or our website. I've also included the N.T. Wright quote. (I did not use this on Saturday night, so it's not something you missed when you were sleeping, Debbie.)

1. Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind in the voting booth. So you will seek to vote in a way that reflects the stamp of God’s image on your life.
2. Thou shalt love your neighbor as yourself. You will not simply vote for what’s good for you. You will vote for what is good for your neighbor.
3. Thou shalt seek God's glory by promoting his values. Incidentally, everyone goes to the voting booth voting their values. It would be a shame for our country if Christians left their values at home. It is quite obvious from this passage that God is Lord of your life always, even while you're in the voting booth.
4. Thou shalt not idolize a party or candidate.
5. Thou shalt be informed about the issues and candidates. Love demands it. Policies have consequences. And sometimes those consequences are unintended, so don't leave your mind at home.
6. Thou shalt be humble in the voting booth. God has not revealed what to vote for. Only God knows all the consequences of our votes. He is chosen not to give us a particular political philosophy to pursue. Therefore Christians will go into the voting book voting with the same motivations and informed by Scripture, but they will inevitably come out having voted for different candidates and policies.
7. Thou shalt treat those with whom you disagree with honor. Even if you don't respect their positions or their logic, you will treat them with respect.
8. Thou shalt be hopeful. You will pin your hope on a Kingdom that transcends all others. 
9. Thou shalt be joyful. The Spirit’s joy is not dependent on our immediate circumstances.
10. Thou shalt not be cynical. Cynicism is rooted in arrogance or hopelessness.

N.T. Wright from Luke for Everyone:

"Underneath the debate stands a darker theme. The accusers have failed this time; but Jesus knows, and Luke’s readers know, that they will soon succeed…. The leading Jews are going to hand over to Caesar not only the coin that bears his image, and his false title son of God, but the human being who truly bears God’s image, and who truly bears that title. But, in that act, they are unwittingly offering to God the one stamped with the mark of self-giving love. The cross itself is taken up into both Caesar’s purposes and God’s: Caesar’s favorite weapon, the cross, becomes God’s chosen instrument of salvation."

I explain why our church does not promote particular candidates or policy solutions here. We speak to the issues behind the policy solutions. And we would comment on policy if a policy coerces or tries to force people or sin.

Weekend Message Q&A

Here are the questions I received based from the weekend message.

Q – You certainly guided us through the biblical guidelines of marriage and sexuality in the last few weeks.  However, how about divorce?  Outside of unfaithfulness and desertion by an unbeliever, is there any grounds for a biblically guided divorce? If so, what/where is it?  I ask mainly for a close family member who is strongly considering divorce, but both are believers and there has not been unfaithfulness.  Thanks.

A – Here’s our Elder’s policy on Divorce and Remarriage Download DivRemarPolAug07. It's a good place to start.

Q – The I Corinthians 6 verse confused me a little bit. I thought by grace we are saved, does this verse mean homosexuals and the others in the verse are not? 

A – Here’s the passage.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

I think you are assuming that Paul is saying Christians don’t do any of those things once they have been washed, sanctified and justified, but he is not. These verses have to be read in the context of the whole letter, of Paul’s writings and even in the context of the entire Bible.

In this letter Paul clearly assumes that Christians still sin—including the sins listed in this passage. In this letter he goes into detail about how Christians will at times live “according to the flesh.” Some translations translate “flesh” (when used in this sense) as “sinful nature.” 

Even in this passage Paul refers to the fact that we are made righteous only through Christ and by the Spirit’s work. So, it’s not about not doing certain things that we are saved.

But if a person’s life is marked by these sins, a person’s heart lacks repentance and change/growth isn’t evident in a person’s life, Paul is saying they can expect the same results as non-Christians at the judgment because that’s what they are, in spite of their association with the church and their verbal profession of Christ. Jesus spoke to this as well in the Gospels (Matthew 13:24-30; also John 10:25-30). Paul’s words are first a warning/exhortation that keeps the good "fear" of God on the forefront of the believer’s mind. It’s one of the ways God helps all his children persevere all the way to the end. It reminds us to stay vigilant. We are at war with sin and evil. Failure to be at war in our lives is a possible sign that we never enlisted! But his words also function as a reminder that there are always wolves among the sheep.

Q – You said we need to examine the policies we are voting on. Can you recommend a good non-biased place to read about the policies and the pros and cons of proposed policies? 

A – I don’t think this (or most topics) can be approached in an unbiased way. So you're going to need to go to your usual trusted sources. I recommend building a good stable of trusted sources for political and worldview issues—people and organizations that deal with a wide variety of issues in a biblical way. Here are some of my favorite organizations for this sort of thing:

• BreakPoint and The Colson Center.
• Christianity Today: Note that Christianity Today has a variety of different publications and blogs to which you can subscribe. Check out their "Media/Culture" and "Politics/Current Affairs" sections.
• Although I haven't used it much recently, World Magazine seeks to consistently bring a biblically informed worldview to today's news and issues.

Starting with these resources will introduce you to a variety of Christianity’s greatest thinkers.

Then, just to keep everyone honest, I recommend exposing yourself to thoughtful sources that don’t claim to be biblical in their orientation. One or two will do, but if you've been around Five Oaks for a while you know I listen a lot to the news on Minnesota Public Radio (including NPR news shows) and programs they carry like "Planet Money," "Marketplace," "Radiolab," and "This American Life." I also read the Pioneer Press, watch both CNN and Fox News and even get a dose of talk radio. None of these sources come from a particularly Christian perspective and you don't have to be an input nut like me to get a variety of perspectives.

Bring the Bible's teaching to bear on what you know learn from these resources and from trusted friends, then I'm pretty sure you'll be an well-informed voter.

Q – (1) For those of us who have decided to vote “yes” on the marriage amendment how do we respond to people who say that in the United States we have a separation of church and state and (2) something so biblical has no place in politics? (3) In my experience that question is always followed up with “how would you like it if non-Christian doctrine was forced onto you”? (4) In your opinion what are the secular reasons for voting “yes”?

A – I’ve taken the liberty to number the questions.

(1) I try to bring up a couple of ideas:

It’s debatable whether what the constitution says about church and state should be interpreted as a "separation of church and state." It’s good to remind folks that the terms “separation of church and state” are not in the constitution and that the phrase is a debatable interpretation of what is the constitution.

But whether or not it's a good interpretation, we know for certain that the framers did not want individual citizens to participate in the public square without their consciences (formed by their faith or lack thereof) engaged. In other words, I like to remind people that no one else leaves their convictions at home when they vote, so why should Christians?

(2) I guess I would point out that until recently every culture from every religion (including atheistic governments) for all recorded history have only sanctioned marriage between men and women. It’s not just a biblical position.

(3) As politely and respectfully as possible, I would ask, “Are you serious?” Tens of thousands of Christians have had their relatives (grandchildren, nieces, nephews, etc.) aborted—children that would not otherwise have died except that our government sanctions abortion on demand. Again, this doesn’t settle the issue as to whether or not the gay marriage amendment is a good law. It simply is a reminder that all laws arise out of the biases, ethics, convictions and worldview of those who frame them. There are very few if any unbiased, neutral laws that don't force something on anyone.

(4) This is a very important question. It assumes, quite correctly, that while we vote our consciences and convictions based on Scripture, it’s not profitable to try to convince people who don’t share our convictions about Scripture by appealing to Scripture. While we believe God’s precepts (his commands) are based on the principles he established in his creation, and those principles arise from the person of God (his character), this argument doesn’t fly with the general public. But if what we believe is true, doesn’t it follow that there should be arguments we can make based on reason and common grace? Here’s a BreakPoint commentary the late Chuck Colson wrote a few years ago that can serve as a starting point for making those arguments (link here).

Even so, I think it’s also important to point out the burden of proof actually lies with anyone who is advocating for changing something that has been universally accepted throughout history. What evidence do they have for suggesting “gay marriage” won’t negatively impact society or the institution of marriage? I think their argument would need to be compelling.

Everything I’m saying here assumes that gay marriage is not a good thing because God says it's not a good thing, but it makes no judgment on whether or not the amendment itself is good governmental policy.

Thursday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I have a few things I want to share with you.

#1- This weekend’s message is PG-13 because it’s about sexuality. I will not be talking about how you should vote in the upcoming marriage amendment for the same reason I don’t address other political policies. (For a full explanation, go here.) But I will address the issues behind political policies. I’ve had people on both the “vote no” and “vote yes” sides say that what I’m doing is just a sneaky way of telling people how to vote, and I might as well just come out and be honest about it. I completely disagree! Here’s what I wrote a friend of mine yesterday who is of the “vote no” persuasion.

My overwhelming concern is discipleship. I think this issue is an opportunity to address how we read Scripture, how we live out our faith in the public square, how we love, who we follow, how we allow God to shape our identity, the nature of truth, the relevance of Scripture to everyday life and so much more. …I happen to believe (and our church and denomination believe) that the Bible is clearly and unequivocally for sexual intimacy only the context of the covenant of marriage between a man and woman. If I didn't address the topic right now when it's such a topic of discussion, I think it could be construed as pastoral malpractice or dishonesty. 

Let me just underscore that I am not going to comment on the merits of this particular law or on the merits of legislation (or this type of legislation) in this matter (or matters like this one). And it has absolutely nothing to do with our tax status. Again, my convictions and reasoning are clearly laid out here.

#2- We have over 60 families who have taken the Do You Devo? Challenge and more that are doing it that didn’t sign up. I love seeing whole families committed to hearing from God together regularly.

#3- Hundreds of you are participating in the Story of God study right now. I love hearing about what you’re learning. Several who have done it before are telling me about what they’re noticing this time around that they missed before. Some are passing typos on to me and that is very helpful. I will soon have the manuscript professionally edited, so that will help the editor. This copy was printed while still in the beta stage to meet the deadline. I was way more concerned with getting a flawed product in your hands than a perfect one when it’s too late. Just wait until you get to week 8 and find out I missed an entire day! I was thinking you might want to catch up on that day. Yeah, that's right. That's what I was thinking.

#4- Here’s a great picture of our church building from the sky taken by Five Oaker Gary Chambers.

#5- Tim Bubar is part of the team planning the next national EFree Students Challenge conference. This conference is such a positive spiritual catalyst in the lives of so thousands of students that I’m extremely proud of Tim for serving in this capacity. Here’s the team.

#6- If you’re a member, please read this memo point, even if you’re tempted to by-pass it once you see what it’s about. Okay, it’s about our by-laws. We’re always changing our church by-laws to keep up with our growth and changing circumstances. We’re proposing several key changes we'll vote on at the congregational meeting.

• One is to help protect our pastors and the church from lawsuits for refusing to do weddings that violate our biblical convictions.
• Two are long overdue given the size of our congregation and budget. We can’t continue to ask volunteers to audit our books given the enormity of the task, so we will be looking for outside help to do it. Our elected auditors from the congregation will examine the professional audit and communicate concerns and needed changes to the Board. We also need greater flexibility is choosing a Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer. Larger churches in our denomination all vote for Board members (as we will continue to do), but many let the Board members vote for who will serve as Chair and Secretary. And they often assign a paid staff member as Treasurer because of the difficulties associated with having a volunteer in this position (i.e., timeliness and workload).

If you have any concerns about this, please do not wait until the Congregational Meeting to investigate. Talk to your Board members now and read the supporting materials here.  

#7- Don’t forget: The first service on Sundays will change to 9:15am on November 4 (the end of Daylight Savings Time). We are not adding to the length of our services. We are only trying to add more time for transitions between services. Things get really crazy in the Children’s Ministry check-in are when we have only 15-20 minutes to transition. Send me your questions if you have any about this change. We considered many options and I don’t want to over-communicate by including them here.  

See you on the weekend.

Blessing to you, Pastor Henry

Everybody's Talking About Civility

The Pioneer Press has a front-page article today noting recent outbursts from Representative Joe Wilson, Serena Williams and Kanye West. Chuck Colson weighs in on it in his BreakPoint commentary. Below are highlights of his commentary. I'll just add here that this is crucial for our witness to the world. We are missionaries in our world first and foremost. That has profound implications that believers seem to forget in the quest for more short-term gains. In addition, to our outreach, the lack of civility is taking a toll on believers as well, especially Christian leaders. Pastor Gordon MacDonald (who is one of the church's elder statesmen) has commented that a spirit of meanness had taken hold in the church and he doesn't see it subsiding any time soon.

Here are the highlights from Colson.

Restoring Civility
Take the Pledge
September 16, 2009

It will probably go down in history as the first presidential speech remembered not for what the President said, but for how a member of his audience responded.

Even if you didn’t watch Barack Obama’s health care address last week, I’m sure you’ve heard what happened. Obama had just finished saying that his health care plan would not cover illegal aliens. In response, Rep. Joe Wilson shouted out, “You lie!” shocking television audiences from coast to coast, not to mention the President.

Talking heads have spent the rest of the week talking about the need for civility in public discourse—and that’s a good thing. Two people who are likely paying close attention to this debate are men who are about as far apart politically as it’s possible to get. Mark DeMoss is the conservative president of the DeMoss Group. Lanny Davis is a former advisor to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

DeMoss and Davis—both concerned about the sharp decline in civility—have created an online forum called The Civility Project. Its goal: getting Americans to re-learn how to disagree without being so nasty to one another. They are inviting Americans of every political stripe to take a civility pledge, in which they commit to three things: “I will be civil in my public discourse and behavior. I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them. I will stand against incivility when I see it.”

Three cheers for them! Too many Americans think that it’s OK to simply shout down their opponents, malign their motives, or, when all else fails, make vicious personal attacks. I lived through this in Watergate, being spit upon by angry mobs.

...civility is a precondition for democratic dialogue. And civility is mandatory for Christians; Jesus told us to love our enemies, which would exclude us from making vicious verbal attacks against them.

I can’t excuse Rep. Wilson’s outburst. But I do understand his frustration. For months, President Obama himself has been repeatedly accusing his opponents of lying about his health care plan—just as he did in his speech before Congress. Even liberal CNN says Obama’s regular use of the word “lie” is “unstatesmanlike.”

...I am sure that Rep. Wilson, if he could re-live that moment, would not shout out at the President again. And, in a show of real civility, Wilson apologized to Obama, and the President accepted his apology. I commend them both.

It’s a positive step—albeit a small one—to restore civility to our national discourse.

Historic Day

It was really something seeing our first African-American president's inauguration. Amazing. Someone commented to me that living in the north all her life (and, I would add, being younger), the gravity of this day escapes her to a certain degree.

I'm no expert on this, but my advice to her and others is that besides studying the historical facts, the emotions get touched through stories. Three "stories" I often recommend:

• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor: Lois use to read this to her students every year during Black History Month when she was a classroom teacher.
• One of my favorite all-time movies that makes me choke up just thinking of it is "To Kill a Mockingbird."
• Two television movies that I loved but don't know if they have stood the test of time (regarding style, etc.) are Roots and a made-for-TV movie on Ruby Bridges. 

Do you have other recommendations?

Congratulations to President Elect Obama

It's an amazing thing for the member of a minority--a formerly enslaved minority--to reach the office of president! Whether or not you agree with our next president's politics or party, pray for him, for his safety, for wisdom, for him to be a just and godly leadership. And give thanks to our God for our country and the great privilege we have to participate in this process.

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. (1 Timothy 2:1-2)

What Should You Care About in the Voting Booth

In addition to your thoughts on who can help lead a recovery of the economy, combat terrorism and conduct our foreign policy (including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan), here's what you should care about when you enter the voting booth. It's not that politicians are actually on the front lines on most of these issues, but their actions certainly have an impact on them:*

    * pursuing the well-being of marriages and families

    * protecting religious freedom and liberty of conscience

    * promoting the sanctity of human life

    * seeking justice and compassion for the poor and vulnerable

    * protecting human rights

    * seeking peace and working to restrain violence

    * caring for God's creation

    * pursuing racial justice

That's a good start, I think. The notation below will lead you to the biblical basis for each of these issues and a whole lot more.

*This list is adapted from "For the Health of the Nations: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility," a position paper produced by the National Association of Evangelicals in 2004.

Endorsing a Presidential Candidate

In the last week of our Memo2theNextPresident.com series I'll be departing from the pattern we've been following. The text will be Romans 13 and the title is "Correctly Political." 

You may remember that several weeks ago several pastors across the nation endorsed particular presidential candidates in their sermons that week. The stories in the news were about how they might be putting their tax exempt status in jeopardy. There's also a legal group that will defend their churches and hopes to take it to the Supreme Court to overturn the relatively recent law forbidding churches from recommending particular candidates. 

I'll tell you this week why I think it's a bad idea for a church or the pastor of a church to recommend presidential candidates in any "official" manner. And my reasons have nothing to do with our tax exempt status. 

That's not all I'll be talking about. Part of bringing Christ to everyday life is to be a compassionate citizen, active in the community and in our nation for good and for the Kingdom of God. Our vocation in our world is much more important and impacting than recommending particular candidates or policy measures. Don't miss the last week of our series if you can help it.

Assessing Candidates

I'm doing a little multi-tasking--watching the big debate, reading some blogs and writing posts. Very interesting debate and there will be many surprised pundits, don't you think? I have to admit, I'm surprized.

Here's some interesting advice on choosing a candidate from one of America's most respected executive coaches, Marshall Goldsmith:

My suggestions for you – as a voter:

• Ignore word games that are being used to trap all three candidates.
• Accept the fact that all three have supporters who may say and do crazy things.
• Assume that all three are decent, intelligent people who want to do what is right for our country.
• Analyze the most significant challenges that will face our country over the next four years.
• Listen to each candidates plan to meet these challenges.
• Choose the candidate that you believe will do the best job.
• Don’t feel a need to crucify the other candidates to prove that yours is superior.

Politics and Church Leaders

If you want to get my take on politics and the church, take a look at the "Categories" section on the right side of this page and link on "Politics." Here are some insights from John Ortberg (a summary of his article follows):

Talking Religion and Politics without Getting Co-opted
by John Ortberg

Anybody but me notice that this is an election year?

...Here's the problem: politics is an important sphere of human activity, and as such God is keenly interested in it. It was the Dutch theologian and politician (why don't we have more of those?) Abraham Kuyper who famously said, "There is not one inch of creation about which Jesus Christ does not say: 'This is mine!'"

However, as soon as human beings (including church leaders) start assuming they are in a position to pronounce God's political leanings, things get a little dicey.

In Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, which remains the high water mark in presidential theological reflection, he notes that "Both (the North and the South) read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other." So maybe a way to place politics in its proper context is with a little thought experiment.

Imagine that we elected all the right people to all the right offices. President, Congress, governors, right down to the school board, city council members, and dog catcher (which, by the way, does anyone still get to vote for?) Let's imagine that all of these ideal office holders instituted all the right policies. Every piece of legislation—from zoning laws, to tax codes, to immigration policy, to crime bills—is just exactly the way you know it ought to be.

Would that usher in perfection?

...no human system has the ability to change the human heart. Not even democracy, or capitalism, or  post-modern-emergent-ancient-future-missionalism. T.S. Elliot summed up our quandary brilliantly: "We want a system of order so perfect that we do not have to be good."

...no human system has the ability to change the human heart. Not even democracy, or capitalism, or  post-modern - emergent - ancient - future - missionalism. T.S. Elliot summed up our quandary brilliantly: "We want a system of order so perfect that we do not have to be good."

Systems are important but they're also complicated. Historian Mark Noll notes that evangelicals often fail to add value in politics because we like simplicity: good vs. evil; right vs. wrong. Political and economic arrangements are full of complexity and nuance. Well-intended legislation may lead to poor results. When we condition people to think that every bill is a battle between the forces of righteousness versus the minions of darkness, we do not serve the process well. But we specialize in polarizing. No parachurch organization with a political agenda ever sent out a fund-raising letter noting that an upcoming bill was "likely to do 40 percent more good than harm."

We ought to be engaged in the political process. ...We should do it in a way that is civil and respectful and redemptive. ...But we should also remember that the church is not called to be one more political interest group.

The human race needs an administration of another kind. There is one possibility. Someone needs to be in a position to say: "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News." Scholars like N.T. Wright remind us that these words were politically loaded. They deliberately echo or parody the claims of Rome—that Caesar was Savior, that his kingdom was Good News.

The Gospel of the early church was, among other things, a deliberate in-your-face to the empire. Pretty cheeky when you think that the church had a few thousand ragged cohorts and the Empire ruled sixty-five million hearts. It was pretty clear which horse to bet on. But here we are, two thousand years later, and we give our children names like Peter, Paul, and Mary; and we call our dogs Caesar and Nero.

These gospel words of the early church were deliberately politically loaded. But they were not to be co-opted. They are to stand above every human party and candidate and political platform. The church historically has not done well when it gets too closely associated with empires. The gospel words must transcend higher to go deeper...

There's more if you link, but these are some good thoughts in the middle of this political season.