Punks

Not too long after we moved to Topeka, I got up in the middle of the night, for what I don’t remember, and saw a car parked in front of our house. 

I have to tell you a little about our driveway to make you appreciate that last sentence. Our driveway is over 100 foot long, over 3 times longer than a city or suburban house driveway.  When we lived in Wisconsin, and I had to shovel snow several times a winter, that difference between 30 feet and 100 feet would have been huge.  In fact, I had a little gas powered snow blower in WI that was completely impractical for my new 3x longer driveway here.

So, here I am, it’s about 3 am and I see a car parked on the street in front of my house with people inside of the car.  What would you do?

I decided to protect myself and then I called the sheriff (we live in the county). I stood there for the 10-20 minutes before the sheriff arrived (that’s not a complaint but reality when the sheriff has a large territory to cover which is why my sequent of actions was thusly). The deputy addressed the occupants of the car and eventually spirited them away leaving the parked car on the road. I found out later that the car belonged to a neighbor on the other side of our subdivision. Seems like their kids decided to “borrow” it to go drinking without permission. The rumor I heard was that the neighbor was in no hurry to get to the police station to pick up the boys. So, all’s well that ends well, mostly. I did find the occasional empty bottle of liquor in my yard over the next few months.

I’ve been watching these First Amendment Auditor videos. These people go and film in front of a bank or police station or church until someone comes out (or they call the police), to ask them why they are there. The audit part is to see if the police understand the person’s rights or whether they try to exert their influence on behalf of the person who called. There is a variety of good and bad outcomes.

The part that has been bothering, however, is the three videos I’ve seen of one of these auditors filming outside of a church. The first video I saw had a person who described herself as the Director of Communications confront them and eventually yell at them to leave as they weren’t wanted (I didn’t try to figure out what kind of church it was because it didn’t matter). 

The second video, three guys came out of the church to confront them (I assume two were pastors). They were nicer and more cordial. In fact, the junior person invited the camera people in for coffee and to chat.  Even then, the appearing senior pastor gave up and said he’d let the cops deal with them.

In the third video, three men came out and two of them were collared.  The senior collared person, in my opinion, got a little handsy with the camera people (remember they are there wanting confrontation for clicks).  Nothing bad but walking up to a stranger and gently grabbing their arm while they are filming, does not seem prudent either.  After some raised voices, the senior pastor called the police and stood within a few feet of them until the cop arrived.

I’m waiting to talk to Pastor Patrick about these three videos so I’ll adjust my ending accordingly. However, what bothers me is how do we as a church body be both welcoming and loving to all people (including people who we don’t know why they are there) and yet protect our safety at the same time. At this point, I believe it was a mistake in all three situations for someone to come out and talk to them in anything other than a tone expecting that they needed faith help.  As Reagan used to say “trust but verify” or assume their motives are pure unless you have reason to believe otherwise.  Be the light in someone’s darkness.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” - Philippians 4:4-9 ESV

The Holy Spirit was at work today. In Patrick’s sermon, he talked about being the light to others of the glory of Christ. He agreed with me that, while we need to make sure individuals intend no harm to the congregation, we need to be cognizant of the opportunity to plants seeds for the glory of God. As my devotion pointed out a couple days ago, we could not begin to understand the glory of God if we didn’t see the other side. My devotion, really R.C. Sproul, pointed out that if God showed him all his sins at one time, he’d die under the weight of his guilt.

I feel the same way.