What should we expect of unbelievers? In this case it is fair to fight for freedoms guaranteed in our constitution. When the Phillipian officials sent a messenger telling Paul he could leave Paul said ” you’ve beaten and jailed us and we are Roman citizens, we aren’t just going to leave, the officials need to come and release us themselves” Acts 16:37 paraphrase. The officials were afraid because of Paul’s citizenship and rights and they came to apologize.
But my idea is that in this particular case , and in every incident, it might be helpful to consider: what is the best way to achieve our goals? Our highest goal (after honoring God ) is changing the hearts of Americans to support religious freedom, if that doesn’t happen our freedom will fade no matter what we do. So in this case when an opponent has overreached like the mayor then how should we respond? My father used to say let them hang themselves.
So I’m only wondering about strategy. It’s the art of war so to speak. If you have the advantage then you can go with the flow. If the pastors refuse to give their speeches then they can set up cameras and security at their churches and wait for the city to come. Then just let them come. Live stream everything on Ustream, when they come then everyone can see the city go thru the church looking for speeches. Then post the videos on YouTube . That would get thousands of views I bet. This shines a light on the darkness. If Christians don’t respond to this then they won’t respond to anything.
Then the pastors can respond legally with whatever is appropriate. If it’s a civil rights violation then churches may be able to win a settlement (if they decided it was okay to pursue) that would scare any government entity from ever trying something like that again. Thus they could establish a precedent that would protect churches.
The biggest danger in this kind of blunder by an opponent is losing the battle of public opinion. Public opinion and emotion are extremely valuable and who knows how long it will be until churches have this much favorable opinion. Opponents may never blunder like this again. The Enemy likes to move slow and undetected which is why people get lulled to sleep. The city’s overreaching is doing the opposite so it seems like Christians should be careful about responding in any way that would unnecessarily give people a negative view of the churches. In a sense the churches have already won, they just need to calmly act rationally and watch the victory come. Maybe keep praying that truth gets exposed and that people of influence respond with justice.
If I was sitting in a room with some strategists trying to think up a scenario that would help religious freedom then it would probably be something like Houston . It’s like a dream opportunity. What else could I ask for? I don’t need to get emotional as I might in other cases in order to wake people up. I just need to be calm and keep it in the public eye and let things be exposed. If I make negative comments it might only weaken my efforts so I need to apply emotional wisdom. Letting go of control of it and praying for wisdom and creativity would be my focus. How can I use social media and technology to keep the events in the public eye? I would look for ways that God will turn negatives into positives, which is his specialty.
I would ask myself what emotions are motivating the mayor. Maybe she’s had a horrible experience with Christians and felt condemned. Maybe if some pastors sat in a room with her and let her vent then she would calm down. This is just an example of creatively applying emotional wisdom, it may not work in this case.
If my ultimate goal is to change hearts in the realm of common grace then I need to use the tools best suited for that. Eg the principles of persuasion. (“How to win friends and influence people” is the classic book on this. I wish all Christians would study it.) But I should also continue to calmly stick to my legal rights with wisdom.
