From Salem to Mosul (priorities matter)

Posted on By pukeko

One of the principles that used to exist in common law was de minimus : the trivial has no place in a courtroom. Small stuff can just be sorted out. So it is in the church. There are variations in what one does: one person reads this lectionary and others that: some people use the book of common prayers and others free pray, and that is before we talk about communion.

At the church in the fale they had two kinds of bread — a gluten free for the allergic, and two kinds of wine — juice for those who cannot take alcohol because of their conscience.

I thought it was odd, but in these are trivia. And on little things we should be charitable.

Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.”

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

(Romans 14:1-12 ESV)

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For this reason, I try not to get into fights on smaller things, such as festivals, or feast days. This is not to deny that there disputes between the reformed and the methodists, let alone the Romans, on doctrine. There are. But the one God we worship, and that is the essential.

In fact, there will be variations. Consider, for a second, that great secular festival, Christmas. It is in the beginning of summer here: most people are in shorts and a shirt, and we tend to not eat the big English Christmas meal we inherited from the Victorians, but something lighter and something grilled.

I have more of an issue with holy days from other religions. I do not fast in Ramadan, nor do I celebrate Matariki, which is becoming popular because it is a celebration that would fit the local seasons as well as Saturnalia did the pagans.

Perhaps I am weak in conscience. My Chinese Christian friends cheerfully embrace the traditional festivals of their culture.

But this tolerance, this variation, is being challenged by the secularist. For the progressive. no thing is too small, from our habits — it is not enough to ban smoking, but now booze and soft drinks need to be shunned — to our thoughts.

And at this point we go to Salem, where it’s the Christians who are being shunned. Gordon College is a private Christian school that had a contract to run the town hall — which they could then also use for educational purposes.


Dominick Pangallo, chief of staff for Driscoll, told Campus Reform that Salem was planning on resuming management of the facility as of September 1.

“[S]ince Gordon’s student conduct policies are in direct conflict with the City’s non-discrimination ordinance, which was adopted earlier this year, we acted to terminate the contract early,” he said in an email. “That conflict, which came to light as a result of President Lindsey’s [sic] letter advocating for an exemption from federal anti-discrimination policies ability, led us to the conclusion that we could not continue our contractual relationship with Gordon as it violated both the letter and the spirit of the city’s law.”

Pangallo said that any organization has the ability to rent out the facility, including faith-based organizations, as long as they comply with routine licensing, fire prevention, and potential police detail requirements. Old Town Hall does serve as a wedding venue where straight and homosexual couples can wed.

There, is of course, a context, and by that I do not mean the witch hunts of the 17th century.

Salem was also given a perfect score for 2014 by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a progressive LGBT civil rights advocacy group and political lobbying organization. HRC cited the city’s ordinance, its LGBT-inclusive policies, and newly appointed LGBT liaisons in the mayor’s office and police department as motivating factors behind its scoring.

“As a progressive, welcoming, and diverse community we have a large and growing population of LGBT residents and visitors,” Pangallo said. “By designating an LGBT liaison in both the Mayor’s office and the Police Department we provided a recognizable point of contact.”

Pangallo said neither the LGBT liaison to Driscoll nor the liaison to the police department receive any additional salary.

It is reaching the point where any church or para church organization will have to let any contract they have for public buildings go, and also insist of private property rights. Having said that, I am waiting for the howls from the pagans in my neighbourhood when we demolish our 1920s church in the near future — because we do not want to put 2 million dollars into earthquake strengthening when it will be cheaper to rebuild.

But again, I don’t really care about the building, because the church is the people and we can worship in a shed if needs be.

But the secularists do want to control us. As Wintry Knight comments


So the mayor has decided that she should punish Christians because they have beliefs that are different than hers. She is forcing her beliefs on Lindsay, and if he then agreed with her, she would remove the punishment. Isn’t it amazing how secular people are able to accuse others of doing something that they are doing themselves, and their heads don’t explode from the illogic?

The mayer should worry about sewage and rubbish collection, lights, law and order and hygiene. Not twee statements that merely cause conflict and destroy good will. But she will not.

Gordon College therefore has no choice but to unwind any contracts they have with the town. If that does not work, they should leave. For if they stay, they will stop doing their mission — of educating young people within the faith.

And when it comes to our freedom to preach the Gospel, we need to stand with the Gordon Colleges as much as we should stand with the Christians who are being driven out of Mosul.

When you are being beaten for saying goodbye to a friend, then there is no sense of allowing humanity in the small things. The difference between ISIS and the twit of a mayor in Salem is that the mayor can delegate her violence to police and officers, and tries to use social isolation.

The Islamists are using what they have always used. The sword.

But we need to ignore the differences in our liturgies, and even some of the more deep theological differences, and support our Christian brothers. Particularly those who are fleeing for their faith right now.