People following the debacle between various law societies and the nascent law school of Trinity Western University have a new discussion topic this week. After the Nova Scotia Barristers society decided to deny all graduates of said law school the ability to article and join the law society in Nova Scotia, because of Trinity Western’s mandatory code of conduct. That code of conduct states that students at the school cannot engage in sexual activity outside of marriage, and marriage is defined as between one man and one woman.

Of course, it has already been accepted in some quarters that to deny sexual expression to a sexual orientation is to be discriminatory against that sexual orientation, and so several provinces (Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Ontario) went on record as saying that they’ll not support this discrimination by TWU, and to do that they used the strongest weapon they had, they decided to deny any person who graduates from that law school the right to be considered as graduates of a law school. Note that they are not actually saying that TWU graduates substandard people, or that the people who go to TWU are somehow less capable lawyers. The reason was to try and force TWU to go back on its code of conduct.

For some reason, the law societies missed that this is, in itself, a form of discrimination against a minority group (in this case, conservative evangelical Christians). It isn’t surprising, then, that Trinity Western went to court to get judgements to say that the law societies are going outside their authority (since, y’know, they control access to status as officers of the court in their varied jurisdictions). The first of the resulting decisions comes in the brilliantly-written 132 page decision of Justice Campbell.

Of course, before Evangelicals break out the champagne, remember that this is only one jurisdiction in Canada, and it is possible that there will be an appeal to reverse this decision (though given precedent in Canada, I can’t see how, unless our judges are just trying to get the result they want).

But this decision also underscores another point that we Christians in Canada need to remember. While we are to vote our consciences, and we are to live in the world according to the truth God has revealed to us, let us remember to never use the instrumentalities of the state to force others to act contrary to their beliefs (insofar as that is possible). Let us remember to love those who may want to use the instrumentalities of the state to silence and exclude us. After all, Our Lord was pretty clear about that.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:43-45, English Standard Version)

Today we can be happy that at least some of our legal profession have understood the need for true tolerance in the administration of justice. This may not always be the case. Tomorrow we may face persecution again, or we may be placed as the arbiters of the gates of authority. In either case, let us remain true to our faith.

Soli Deo Gloria

133 A Song of Ascents. Of David.

Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.

I may be in for a horrible rude awakening if ever the Lord blesses me to lead a congregation. I have heard that the sinfulness of humanity, even those in the Church, is best exemplified in the event called the “Annual General Meeting”, with acrimony present between various factions of the Church with people wishing to eliminate other factions, and fights about the pastor’s salary and benefits taking up hours of heated debate.

That has not been my experience.

Perhaps God has been protecting me, and maybe I’ve just been not seeing things that are there, but I just got back from the annual meeting of the local church I’m privileged to be a member of, and I gotta say, I enjoyed (yes, enjoyed) it. Sure, it had the normal sets of discussions about what is actually happening with the finances of the Church, and some parliamentary discussion about whether a motion had to be filed two weeks in advance for a specific order of business. Yet it also had the voting in of new members, and gentle ribbing between friends about their roles in the Church. It had friendships and discussions before and after, and learning, and vision. we heard about God’s ultimate plan for His Church, and God’s ability to use us to reach our city.

Afterwards, I even had to tell someone I was giving a ride to that I had to go so I could get home and write this before midnight because he was engrossed in a conversation about the way God calls us to teach our children about His deeds and His character.

Maybe it’s just that I love my Church, but an annual general business meeting of a Church can be a beautiful thing. To you, my readers, facing AGMs that may not be so blessed, may I say a few things:

1. I’m praying for y’all. Seriously, I hope an AGM can be a blessing to you.
2. I pray you actually go, not looking to pick a fight, but looking to vision about God’s call on you and your church for the coming year, and to see your family again.
3. When your AGM isn’t as good as it could be, I pray all y’all (can a U.S. southerner tell me if I used that correctly?) pray and work this coming year to build relationships with your fellow Church members that can make sure next year is a blessing to everybody.

God bless! Soli Deo Gloria!

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

I Corinthians 10:31

It may be that I like omelets too much.

Many people are moved to worship of God by great music, decent preaching, and other more “Churchy” things. I wonder though, if at the end of time, and we’re standing before the throne of the heavenly glory that there won’t be a mass of people who have, in their own ways, led to amazing amounts of worship to God by simply doing their jobs well, especially today the guy who made my omelet.

It may be the whole “being at a Pastor’s conference” thing, but when I arrived in Louisville last night after a hugely long trip, I found myself very thankful to a whole raft of people who had simply spent time doing their jobs well. There was the concierge at the Hotel, who so kindly told me where to find a great mexican restaurant in easy walking distance, there was the waiter there, who so kindly helped me navigate the blinding array of choices for a plate of Nachos, and then let me and the two great pastors I met from South Dakota stay outside at the table and discuss the direction of theology in the west.

Then, this morning, jet-lagged as all get out (I woke up at 4 AM and couldn’t get back to sleep), the waitresses and waiters at the restaurant were so kind and helpful (even right after opening and dealing with a wide eyed Canadian pastor), and far more cheerful than anybody should be at that time of the morning. Then, the man behind the counter made one of the most amazing omelets I’ve ever had. In the end, I was looking out the window of the restaurant thankful to God for all of these people who had worked to create a good experience for me, and in the end praise God for the goodness of food, and smiles, and politeness, and a clean table.

I guess the upshot is that these people had all worked together to reflect the glory of God’s creation in a so many ways, just by doing their jobs well. While none of them spoke to me about the Gospel, all of them did impel my heart to praise God. A God who instead of wrath today, gave me a morning filled with the joy of people, and the enjoyment of good food. I am not sure that any of them knew they were leading me in worship, but they were. I am only sorry now that there have been so many times when I have been blind to God’s grace, mercy and love shown through people doing good work.

I pray that I don’t fall into blindness about this soon, I enjoy praising God for the smiling man preparing the omelets, and I pray that God will bless him as much as God has blessed me through his good work.

Generally, these things come to me at strange times. I was just last night reading through James 1 concerning trials, and as a result was praying today about the decisions Christians have to make about following Christ in this world.

Francis Chan asks a good question in this video. Basically, who is it that the Church sees as heroes, and if we say that the modern martyrs are heroes, then do we say that we want to be like them?

Well, do we?

Persecution in India: Francis’ Response from Cornerstone Church on Vimeo.