Public Square: The Gospel as Collateral Damage

Today the institutional church rose up against the Federal government's mandates against conscience.  It was necessary for the preservation of our religious freedoms.  And it was bold.  But let's not for a minute confuse this action with the proclamation of the Gospel.  Furthermore, we should realize that in our post-Christian/post-Church culture this action may very well have created new barriers to reaching the lost in America.

Did we weigh carefully how the non-churched people in our country would perceive the testimony before Congress?  Did we come across to them as caring about people in distress or caring about our rights?  Was the power of God clear or did His Church appear to be a pawn among the power brokers in Washington?

There's a lot of congratulating going on among people and leaders in the church.  Our representatives were articulate.  Their statements were well crafted.  Their arguments were compelling.  They may very well have swayed some people on Capitol Hill and on Main Street.  But I fear we've done more harm than good when it comes to sharing the compassion of Christ with those who are oppressed, broken, and hurting.  In a world in which it said to take an Act of Congress to get things done, it took the political play-acting of Congress for the church, which has been deafeningly silent in the face of so much human suffering, to finally speak up.  And then we spoke in self-interest.

I don't know if having our church leaders testify before Congress in this matter was the right thing to do.  And I don't know if it will make much difference regarding the offending policy.  But I'm convinced that even if we won a victory today in the preservation of religious rights, there were unintended consequences that will make the Church's work of sharing the Good News even more difficult.  In other words, the Gospel was collateral damage.