Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, is nothing sacred anymore? It's prompted by an article I read in the New York Times, really dealing with an incident that's been all over the news, which is when protesters in St. Paul, Minnesota, invaded a church service to protest a pastor at the church who's involved occupationally with ice, the immigration enforcement wing of the federal government. The protesters went into a worship service that was in progress and chanted and were otherwise disruptive in such a way that the worship service could not. Now, what the protesters said is that, they were doing that out of their own faith in Jesus. They compared it to turning over the tables in the temple that Jesus taught. They said that it was okay to disrupt a worship service if it was disingenuous, if it was, blasphemous, if it was out of control. And that's what they were doing. of course, opponents of that will say this was way out of bounds, that they were disrupting a time of worship, which should be a sacred time to make a point about an individual pastor who, for all they know, may not even have been in the service. It has kicked up a pretty big storm of attention on both sides of the political aisle, with one side saying protesting is an American right and even an American calling, and another side saying that we have a real problem in this country with calling anything you want a, protest. And then that covers a multitude of sins. The Justice Department is investigating whether this quote, unquote, protest is a violation of federal law. And this is a story that I don't think is going anywhere soon. And I have to tell you, I'm not sure that it should. it's interesting to me, the pastor of this church, Jonathan Parnell, I went to seminary with Jonathan. I don't know him anymore, but I knew him then. Great guy, loved Jesus, excited about ministry, watching him, in the moment, deal with these protesters and then later on the news try to represent, the gospel. Tells me he probably is, still a really great guy. And I think on this issue, this is indicative of a major problem we have in the United States with the idea of protesting. Look, I know we all grew up hearing the stories, incredible stories of the civil rights movement, of African Americans and sympathetic Americans going into diners that wouldn't serve, of black people and doing a Sit in of crossing a bridge to get in the way of a parade that was going to be antagonistic towards people of color. These are great stories. They're stories of putting oneself in danger in order to oppose unjust laws. There are also stories of dealing with actual institutions that were manufacturing the discrimination. They were sitting in a restaurant because it wouldn't serve black people. They weren't going to the home of the chef and calling his kids names and labeling it, protest. Just because you call something a protest doesn't make it acceptable. It doesn't even make it not criminal. For instance, these protesters said, well, what this church is doing is wrong because they have a pastor who's involved with ice And Jesus said to love your neighbors. Well, of course, the problem with that is that I think many of the churches these protesters go to participate in blasphemy every week. Or when they say that God is a woman, or that, there are many genders, or that sexuality doesn't matter, that the Bible isn't true. Can I go into their church services and yell and scream at a protest for the nature and character of God? Will they celebrate that? Right? Is that even the world we want to live in? Where anytime you disagree with a church, you can go and yell? Can I walk into a mosque or a synagogue and shout down an imam or a rabbi who, because I am an evangelical Christian? No. Just because you call something a protest doesn't mean it's okay. It just may mean you're using a word to hide the fact that you're doing something criminal. Look, as a Christian, I believe that a worship service is a sacred space. The writer of Psalms in Psalm 29:2 says this worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Worship is about God. It's about who he is. It's about what he he's done. It's not about any one person. By the way, the whole idea of evangelical Christianity is that every person in that room is a sinner. Every one of them has a faith and a practice that is impure. So you could protest any church at any time just because you don't like the way I drive. That's not even figurative. If you follow me long enough, you will want to protest the way I drive. That is not the country you want to live in. That is not free freedom. That is harassment. That is discrimination. And it's something that these protesters would not defend were I to do it in a mosque or in a synagogue or in a quote unquote liberal American church. These are people who wanted to be on the news. These are people who wanted to make their point. These are people who are advancing their version of Jesus that I don't even think is squared with scripture. And because of that, I worry. I worry that the response to this is gonna be more armed guards in churches that, the response to this is gonna be conservative, quote unquote, protesters in liberal churches shouting them down for all kinds of things that they believe. What we need here is for these protesters to be punished. And the reason for that is because we need a message sent to people that just calling harassment a protest doesn't make it okay. If you want to protest, you go to the places where they're doing these things and you hold a sign, you chant your chant, or even put yourself in harm's way if you want. If you're going to live with the consequences. You don't walk into a church that is about the worship of God and be disruptive because you fancy yourself a hero. You are not. And you're sending us down a scary path that won't be good for anyone. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

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