Solidarity Made Easy: Standing With Pastors and For Freedom

If you haven't heard yet, 5 Houston pastors were subpoenaed for their sermons and other correspondence sent to their church members in an effort to find language against, in part, the Mayor herself and homosexuality.  

The infringement on the First Amendment is unprecedented.  But it very well could set a precedent for future action.

That's where you and I come in. 

Houston Mayor Annise Parker, and the City Council, and the judge who ordered a subpoena need to see they have "awakened the giant" (and yes, it was in a comatose-like sleep).  

No time to draft your own letter?  

Feel free to copy/paste. 

The Honorable Mayor Annise D. Parker

City of Houston

P.O. Box 1562

Houston, TX  77251

Dear Mayor Parker:

I want you to know that more important than any agenda, as well meaning as it may be, is never worth taking or losing freedom over.  Ever.

Americans have been asleep for years as our freedoms have been slowly eroding-most of which we have shamelessly given away.  But that ended when you and the numbers of people it took to draft and execute the subpoena went after preachers behind their pulpits. 

The exercise of our Christian religion involves preaching the WHOLE word of God and living out our WHOLE lives in submission to God, for the flourishing of all humanity, and to His glory.  I should think you would be supportive of a worldview that believes ALL people are born with dignity because they are born in God’s image-a religion that woos us to “come and reason together” instead of “convert or die”. 

We will stand and push back against anyone who tries to take our freedoms (or yours) away.  Not because we hate those who oppose us, but because we so deeply love and value what needs protecting.

I join with Russell Moore when he says, “The separation of church and state means that we will render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and we will.  But the preaching of the church of God does not belong to Caesar, and we will not hand it over to him.  Not now. Not ever.”

In all sincerity of heart,

The Poverty of Nations and the Body

Last night, I heard Wayne Grudem talk about The Poverty of Nations he co-wrote with Barry Asmus. It is a historical and Biblical look at what works to pull countries out of poverty. Part of the discussion was about how over 250 years ago, every country was impoverished, if one looks at per capita data.

But some countries came out if it.  How? Not really a spoiler, but part of the answer is found in the production of goods and services.  Sending money or food helps for immediate crises, but long term, taking in foreign aid has never in history lifted any country out of poverty.  What it does, in part, is create an insatiable monster in the form of corrupt government leadership that consumes the "aid" before it ever gets to the citizens most at risk.

This morning, I saw an article about Mars Hill Church and its fall.

And it got me thinking...

As the church, we keep growing but what are we producing?  How much "aid" do we take in? How much gets to those who need it?  Is what is true for the health of countries also true for what we now call the church? Do we create programs that soak up the resources in the form of tithes and offerings when we were called to bring the tithe in so that there would be food in His house?

Have we, with the best of intentions, created a den of robbers?

How much more effective would we be in current battles for souls, family, marriage, freedom, poverty, slavery, and racism if so much of our "aid" wasn't necessary to run the church as a business?

Were we really supposed to grow budgets and buildings or the Body?

We need to be very, very careful. And very, very humble.  Because if we are not, we will find that the demands between the building and the Body can become mutually exclusive.