The Risk of Not Being Quiet
Luke 3:18-20
Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz
Luke 3:18 So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people. 19 But when Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the wicked things which Herod had done, 20 Herod also added this to them all: he locked John up in prison.
Luckily, in the United States today, the authorities do not execute a person if they speak out about an injustice. However, in the United States in 2024, speaking out against the current government could land you in some difficulties. Even before this time, speaking out against the government could cause trouble. When Pres. Barack Obama was running for his second term. There were three of us in the church that I was serving who joined the Republican Party because we were in disagreement with the policies of the president. Each of us received certified letters from the Internal Revenue Service demanding all our records for a tax audit within two months of supporting Obama’s opponent. Pastors don’t make that much money, therefore the government would not get a large collection because of an error I may have made. In fact, they did not. This is an abuse of government power, and it was well known that Lois Lerner of the IRS was telling her people to go after conservatives and evangelicals. I happen to be an evangelical and still stand behind that title.
Sometimes telling the truth to someone is not the best thing to do. While that sounds terrible, but do we have to think about the results? Let me tell you the story of a friend named Steve. Steve was a very good civil engineer. He went to work for a company, that I cannot mention here, and was placed on a project where the project manager was the wife of the owner of the company. One Sunday at church, he came to talk to me and was in a dilemma because the project manager, according to him, did not know what she was doing. She was also a member of the church who showed up rarely on Sundays.
I asked Steve how her incompetence affected the overall project. He told me she made a lot of mistakes in her calculations and understanding of the theories of civil engineering. I cautioned Steve and said to him he has to weigh the errors in the project versus his status with the company. I told him directly that if he goes into the owner and does not say things perfectly, he was going to be fired before the end of the day. Certainly, the project manager, the wife, would know about Steve going over her head to her husband. She would insist, well demand, that Steve be fired. So, Steve had a moral and ethical dilemma.
He decided to go to the owner and explain the situation. Unfortunately, Steve was not a tactful person and didn’t take the advice of being very gentle in this situation. And yes, he did not have a job by the end of the day. Unfortunately for Steve, the owner of the company contacted his buddies who owned civil engineering firms in the Dillsburg Pennsylvania area and told them they should not hire Steve. It did not matter that Steve was an outstanding civil engineer; the politics were against him. So, Steve went on unemployment and could not find work. Unfortunately, he also had a heart problem and was forced to change his diet because his unemployment did not cover all of his expenses.
The sad part is one morning Steve was to be with a friend and did not show up. So, his friend went to Steve’s apartment and knocked on the door with no answer. The friend tried to call Steve on his cellular phone and on his landline and received no answer. He was able to convince the landlord to open up the apartment. Unfortunately, you probably know the rest of the story. They found Steve dead. An autopsy showed that he had a massive heart attack, and the doctors surmised he died instantly, without pain or suffering.
So, you can say that Steve died because he went into his boss to tell him that there was this problem. That really sounds bad when you think about it. It also makes you think about whether you should do the right thing. Perhaps if Steve was a bit more tactful, he could have explained to his boss the situation and ask for directions on how to deal with his wife. Unfortunately, we will never know.
What can we learn from John the Baptist story and from Steve’s story? Pointing out morality and ethical problems requires a lot of tact. You also have to be very sure that you are correct in your assessment and that you are ethically and morally as pure as you can be before you condemn someone else. Whether or not you are correct about the morality or ethics of another person, there will be backlash about it and you have to be prepared for it. John the Baptist had to know that he was going to be arrested and killed when he spoke about the immorality of the king. Biblical history tells us that when prophets of the Lord went to the king and officials of the kingdom to tell them they were doing something wrong, they ended up being murdered.
Perhaps that is why the morality and ethics of our society are in decline. It is difficult to speak up. The woke culture that is been developing in the country comes with the problem of cancel culture. Many performers and famous people have been canceled because they came out against this woke culture that’s developing in our society. The canceling of television shows and comedy actors can be seen. When this happens to theses actors, they cannot find work. Isn’t it wrong to take away one’s life work because they don’t agree with some small minority of people who have decided they want to upset the current status quo?
In 2024, people are now standing up to this tiny minority of woke culture people and telling them they’re wrong. They are pushing to have some actors and comedians un- canceled. It is amazing to me that most people will allow a tiny minority of very noisy people to change the traditions and ways that society has lived for centuries. A lot of what woke culture says goes against Christian beliefs.
What I found interesting is I had a chat with my doctoral mentor and asked her what she thought about woke culture. She asked me what woke culture was and told me she had never heard of it. Perhaps that’s the problem that the minority of noisy people have been able to take over parts of our culture because such a large segment does not know what’s going on? After I explained the basics of woke and cancel culture, she agreed that this was wrong and should be stopped. So, relating this back to the John the Baptist story, if there were other people behind John telling Herod that what he did was wrong, perhaps Herod would’ve seen the ways of his mistakes and changed? Well, he was the king and probably not.
Woke culture has been taking its toll on Christianity. Woke culture is against traditional values and Christianity sits right in the middle of traditional values. Therefore, younger people are being told that believing in God and Jesus is just wrong. We can turn this around because we who love Jesus are the majority, not the minority. However, if we allow this woke culture to continue to destroy Jesus' message, then one day we will be in the minority. We have to activate every Christian to stand up for Jesus and tell these woke people how wrong they are, tactfully, and teach them about the love of God through a faithful discipleship to Jesus Christ.
Christianity has been silent in its response to woke culture and needs to become noisy. We have to become brave like John the Baptist and go up to these woke people and just tell them if they want to live the way they're preaching, that’s just fine, but don’t push it on us. The small minority wants to push their ideas and beliefs towards us. That’s what we must stop. We have to allow Jesus and the gospel message to tell this woke crowd we are not changing, and it is not offensive to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we stand up to these people and continue to preach Christ crucified, we will prevail because God is with us. Perhaps we can convince some of the woke that their ways are against the Bible and they may change their hearts?
