Paul's Passing Thoughts

“….but with my whole heart I keep your precepts; their heart is unfeeling like fat,

but I delight in your law.”

~ Psalm 119:69,70

Don’t mess with the world’s children. If you do, they don’t care who you are. Retribution and justice will be swift and severe. At Penn State University, they quickly dispensed of Joe Paterno, a Penn State icon/legend because he did the right thing, but didn’t follow-up. He reported a child rape to his superior that he did not witness and named the one who had reported it to him. But when his boss did nothing, Paterno didn’t call him on the carpet and threaten to go public. The university could have defended him based on the fact that he reported it, and then could have left the minority outcries to their eventual certain death. But instead,  Paterno was unceremoniously fired and his long iconic life went down in flames. The university president was also fired for good measure. Once thought to be a leader’s leader, a reputation that took at least fifty years to earn, he was specifically fired for “failure of leadership.”

There is the secular world with the law of God written on their hearts, Christianity, and religion. Religion has always been a child’s worst nightmare—the monster in the closet going back to the days of Molech who burned children alive on the altar of bad theology. Nazism did the same to unproductive Jewish children while faithful Christians living in Germany never missed a Sunday. Discussions of rich worship and praise could be heard everywhere while Nazi atrocities were routinely published in the German press and presented as heroic.

The Penn State antithesis was projected in my mind as I sat in a church worship service two weeks ago. During a presentation by a ministry director, it was proudly announced that Dr. Michael Loftis  would be the featured speaker at an upcoming conference sponsored by their ministry. Really? Loftis  was recently let go by ABWE which  is still dealing with the Donn Ketcham pedophile scandal. No formal reason was ever given for Loftis’ dismissal, but everybody knows the timing was no accident. This is different from Penn State who left nothing to the imagination and showed no pity. Paterno wasn’t asked to resign, they outright fired him. And if you put the secular persona scale next to the GARB persona scale—Loftis and Ketchum are no Joe Peternos. Not even close.

Loftis knew. He not only knew, he cooperated with the cover up. The results? Well, let me quote from the promotional material proudly issued by the ministry sponsoring the upcoming conference:

Speaker : Dr. Michael Loftis

Executive director of DNA Global Network & former director of The Association of Baptists for World Evangelism.

Where is the shame? In the Penn State incident, those who knew and didn’t speak up are facing criminal charges. Ok, so the fact that Loftis has an executive position is one thing, but mentioning that he was formally the director of ABWE clearly shows that the GARB church in general lacks remorse in this affair. Why in the world would this be added to his credentials? Obviously, his tenure there is not seen as tarnished in any way. But you might say: “Yes Paul, but he accomplished many good things there.” Right, and likewise, Paterno accomplished many good things. Bottom line: he didn’t mess with the ones who were messing with the children, and the secular world found that to be completely unacceptable. Loftis also knew of  how ABWE reframed one of  the incidents as an extra marital affair and invoked a confession from the fourteen year old victim. This is because the sex was supposedly consensual. Therefore, Ketcham was suspended from the mission field for misconduct rather than pedophilia. And, the proper authorities were not contacted in Michigan to boot.

What would the world say about that? Come now, must I recite all of the news accounts of public school teachers who have had truly consensual sex with under-aged students? They are in prison for rape. And they are done, they will never teach again. In fact, they will be forever on a national list that prevents them from coming within a thousand feet of a school that teaches children. My wife works with a secular company that supplies services for disabled children. If she fails to report abuse—it’s a criminal act, that is constantly made clear to those who are in her profession.

Clearly, worldly standards, not only for protecting children, but in general, are becoming higher than the bar set by Christians. Why is that? Basically, as Jesus and the apostles predicted, the last days will bring a focused devaluing of  God’s law. Most lost people see law as a good thing (the apostle Paul said the law of God is written on the hearts of every living being and utilized by the conscience). But theologies that place law in another realm, and separate from God’s power imparted to us are becoming more and more prevalent in our day. Some of today’s premier evangelical teachers constantly advocate the supposed necessity of “separating law and gospel.” Yes, more and more, Christians are learning to “live by grace alone apart from the law.” Or, as the mantra so goes: “living by the gospel.” And on the other hand, the law is separate from the gospel. Is this a good thing?

I had a wonderful lunch with an author last week who I consider to be an authority on Reformation history. I posed a question to him: “If the works of the law are written on the hearts of all, can humanity really be “totally depraved.” His reply: “That’s a good question, isn’t it?” (I thought it was, but I am probably biased). I understand that we are not saved by the law, but in salvation, it would seem to me that the law of God that is already there should be set on fire and greatly expanded. We won’t keep it perfectly, but it will certainly be the direction of our changed heart and the standard for our lives. We are declared righteous apart from the law, but only truth sanctifies. The law is not only that which was written on tablets of stone, but “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

If the law is devalued among Christians for living life, it only makes sense that eventually the world will have more law than we do. And in the Bible, especially Psalms 119:70, lack of attention to the law leads to cold-heartedness. And that’s when the world has more compassion than us, and uses the law to protect the focus of that compassion. It is a day when the lost world has more law than we do.

And I contend that this is not “good news” for our children.

paul