I’m growing more and more unsettled with the direction of my church these days. It just doesn’t seem to be getting the job done with respect to guiding me and the rest of the flock. It’s kind of like having one of those cool hippy moms that are more focused on being their children’s friend than being a parent. A recent sermon asked, what does being a Methodist mean to you? It got me to thinking.

It means never hearing about sin, or how we fall short of the glory of God for one thing. It means belonging to a church that is just too squeamish to broach the subjects of homosexuality and abortion. In fact, its greatest concern lately seems to be why the pews are virtually empty and the median age of the congregation hovers at about 60 years old. I cannot recall any serious discussion or pronouncement on any moral issue from the pulpit in the past three years. But it is clear that the Preacher is a Global Warming true believer and impulsively anti-war.

As a recovering Catholic, with substantial indoctrination in the values of that church, I grew up expecting the church to be a moral guide, a proxy for the Trinity. They call the priests “Father” for a reason. Unfortunately, whatever moral authority the Catholic Church once had has been squandered by protecting scores of the vilest predators for decades with full knowledge of what they were doing. I just can’t follow them anymore.

The Missus has a friend that collects bulletins when she visits other churches, and she was absolutely livid that the cover of one from another parish had a fetus on it. “How could they talk about that with all the babies being killed in Iraq!?” was her first and only comment. When the Missus asked me what I thought about this, I told her it was because our church had failed her. Instead of giving this woman guidance and moral direction, she is adrift in a sea of moral relativism. Had the church been doing its job, the difference should have been clear to her.

While I disagree with the anti-war crowd, I can respect some of their positions. One can make an honest argument that we shouldn’t have gone into this war in the first place; I can respect that. An argument that things have been handled badly is also not out of line. But to equate the accidental killing of children while combating a culture that wantonly kills its own women and children is a bridge too far to me. To use this ridiculous comparative to shift the focus away from the uncomfortable truth that we’ve allowed the deliberate murder of over 45 million babies here at home is just unconscionable.. There simply isn’t any equivalence.

We are in an existential struggle with an ideology that sanctions murder of innocents all over the world. This culture deliberately bombs public places where women and children gather. It bombs weddings. It kills people that speak out against it, like Theo Van Gogh. It bombs subways and trains, like in London and Spain. Its adherents are responsible for the burning of over one hundred cars every night in France. This ideology has stated its aim as nothing less than our utter destruction.

Contrast these zealots with the unbelievable restraint and professionalism of our military. I simply do not believe our soldiers deliberately kill women and children, and no rational person does either. I believe we put ourselves at a great disadvantage on many occasions to avoid such unwanted destruction and death. How many mosques that have served as firebases and weapons caches have been destroyed? NONE! Why is it so easy to believe our own young men and women are monsters while ignoring the flagrant and deliberate destruction being wrought by those we fight? Moral blindness, that’s why. Lack of guidance and spiritual leadership, that’s why. Lack of faith in our country, ourselves, and the truth of the word of God, that’s why. And in my book that’s the first obligation of a church.

God didn’t outlaw war. He sanctioned many wars. He took sides in them. There is no biblical prohibition to war. Deliberate killing of the innocent is forbidden, but not war. Sometimes, evil has to be faced; with courage and faith in the rightness of your actions. Why don’t we hear that from the pulpit? Where is the guidance teaching the difference between the unfortunate but necessary tragedy of war and the abject slaughter being perpetrated by our enemies? These aren’t morally equivalent, so why is the church silent on one of the great moral issues of our time?

And witness how this confusion allows a regular church-goer to leap to such a morally bankrupt comparision to avoid dealing with the voluntary destruction of more babies than the entire population of Iraq. How can the church put people in the pews if it can’t convey the basic moral guidelines that have under girded our nation for over two hundred years? Frankly, I’m looking for a new church. Maybe the Baptists can make a spot for me in the front row.

Scottie