Taking the Wrong Stand

NPR recently ran a series on “Losing Our Religion.” If you have not given it a listen, it would be worth your time. You can find it at http://www.npr.org/series/169065270/losing-our-religion

In one of the segments a United Methodist pastor, Rev. Mike Baughman, was interviewed. When he was questioned about the challenges posed by young adults in reference to the church taking a stand on social issues, he felt that most people expected the church to take a stand; but that, “they believe that the church has taken a stand on the wrong issues.”

Obviously this is a generalization, but too many times it resonates truthfully with my observations of ourselves. In our attempts to be, or at least appear, “holy” we risk the separation of ourselves from the very people that need us and the hope that we possess and represent. There could be few things more “anti-Christ.” Jesus ignored the “stands” taken by the church of his day and placed himself in the center of the people who needed him, though they were dirty, broken, sick and sinful; outcasts from the society around them.

A personal drive toward Christ-likeness is critical to our spiritual growth, and part of that begs a commitment to personal purity…to the extent that we are able to allow the Holy Spirit to take control of us. If that striving, however, translates into a separation from the needy people around us, the world Jesus sent us to as examples of the gospel; then, we risk taking a stand on the wrong issues.

Lest you think I am not “preaching” to myself in all of this, the following, short poem describes my life-long struggle with this very thing perfectly!

It’s ironic, but my lot,

To discern the fine line

Between right and right,

And there, on that perfect spot,

To take my stand;

Only then to find…

It’s not!