Haunted By the Hen

According to the Scriptures, we are called to be people of the light. Jesus taught that light is not to be hidden, but we are to allow His light to radiate through us.  2nd Corinthians 4 says:
5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake.
6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

That is to be our demeanor: our countenance, our approach to life, are to be reflective of the glory of God that has been placed in our hearts.  When we speak, we speak like Him.  As we act, we recognize that we are representing Him.  We, in and of ourselves, cannot measure up.  But, by His grace and the power of the Spirit, we are equipped to be the people whom He has called us to be.  We are called to shine God's light.

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We are called to be compelled by the love of Christ, which infuses and motivates our actions. 2nd Corinthians 5 states:
14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

The incident that occurred the other night at a restaurant in Lexington, VA called the Red Hen continues to reverberate, and there has become a national debate about how people are to regard those with whom they disagree.  The White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and a group of family members went to the establishment and after appetizers were served, the owner of the place, who had apparently been called by an employee who did not wish to do his job and serve a customer, took Sanders aside and asked her to leave.  This follows incidents of harassment of other members of the Trump Administration, as well as the Attorney General of Florida, a Trump supporter, in public places.

The flames were fanned by House member Maxine Waters, calling on people to harass members of the Cabinet, comments that were panned by the minority leaders in both chambers of Congress.

And, it's really chilling to think that in America, whether or not someone is served in a restaurant is determined by his or her political ideology.  Perhaps, hopefully, that will not become a trend.

But, people have contended, what about that baker in Colorado - didn't he "deny service" because of ideology?  The answer, in a word, is - no.  The Daily Signal published an excellent piece that explains it.  In it, author Monica Burke wrote:

Jack Phillips, the baker, serves all customers, but cannot serve all events. He declined to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple not because of their identity, because he could not communicate a message that violated his religious beliefs.

He even offered the couple any other item in his store.

Meanwhile, the Red Hen denied service to Sanders precisely because of who she is. They did not refuse to create a custom order that would have endorsed views they disagreed with. They denied her service, period.

But, wait there's more; Burke writes:

The false analogy also reveals the hypocrisy of the left’s position. They accuse people like Phillips, who serves everyone regardless of who they are, of discrimination, but herald institutions like the Red Hen for denying service because of who someone is.

She also included a series of tweets from Robert George, the Princeton professor who teamed up with Timothy George and the late Chuck Colson to craft the Manhattan Declaration. In this case, he declared: "If you want to analogize--even roughly--the Red Hen to Masterpiece Cakeshop, Sarah Sanders has to ask Red Hen to create custom food items for a celebration (perhaps at her church) of the Zero Tolerance policy. And RH has to be willing to...serve her on its premises, sell her off the shelf food items that she can use for any event she likes, and provide custom-designed food items for her for birthday parties, holiday celebrations, and other events that Red Hen's owners don't object to on moral grounds."

I had to think about an exclusionary mindset that has permeated society today. And, unfortunately, Christians find themselves on the receiving end.  From speech codes on college campuses to attempts to force believers to adopt and express positions with which they disagree, people of faith have faced extraordinary challenges regarding free expression, which becomes an inhibition to the spread of the gospel.  But, the fact is, we are called by God, we belong, and our faith is part of the fabric of our society.  We cannot allow ourselves to be intimidated.  

We are called to boldly proclaim our position on who Jesus is and what He has done.  But, we can do so in a compelling manner. We can follow a principle of "disagree, but not demonize."  Leading Christian apologist Greg Koukl talks about "diplomacy, not D-Day," calling it the Columbo effect.  

Now back to the weekend incident:  Can you imagine if the owner of the Red Hen, if she wanted to express her concern about Administration policies, sat down and politely entered into a discussion? Apparently, according to Sarah's father, Mike Huckabee, some of the dinner party were actually more liberal relatives of her husband, who took the restaurant owner to task when she continued to harass them when they went to the dining establishment across the street.   

We can make it our aim to be inviting.  I thought of the hospitality shown toward a recent Meeting House guest, Rosaria Butterfield, who was a liberal lesbian professor who was invited to spend time regularly in a local pastor's home...she was drawn to the love of Christ through that hospitality and now practices it today.  Just as Christ invites all to sit at His table (although all will not accept it), we can adopt that attitude that all are welcome to experience His grace.