ABOVE THE LAW!

I know, I know, it's the title of a Steven Segal movie. And, if it has Steven Segal in it, it can't be good! I mean, the guy claims to kick the stew out of people, and yet his hair never moves! And has anyone ever realized he looks like an Asian Clint Eastwood? You know who is a real action hero? Chuck Norris! Cause when Chuck Norris does a push up, it's not Chuck pushing Chuck up, it's Chuck pushing the World down.

Okay, okay, back to what I started with. Recently here in Arkansas a push was made by some conservative Christians to have a law put on the ballot come November. Basically, this law says that single people who live with their boyfriend/girlfriend and are sexually active can not adopt a child. When I spoke to someone who supported this, they said it was basically a way to insure homosexual couples can not adopt children. While I can understand that, I feel that perhaps we have overlooked a few things on this proposal. First of all, how can we determine if a couple is sexually active? I mean, is that going to be a question on the application for adoption now? And if we determine that these people are living in sin and therefore are not qualified for adopting, then we should probably add the questions, "Do you spend a lot of time staring at porn?", "Do you and your spouse spend over half of your time physically fighting?", "Do you lie?", "Do you covet other people's stuff?"...get the point? I just think that if we are going to try to pass a law against people living in one type of sin, shouldn't we be consistent?

Another question I have is which is more important: insuring that homosexual couples and those with live-in partner can not adopt all the while leaving more and more children in foster care, lacking the essential love that children need? I know this is a deeper issue. It's more like choosing the lesser of two evils.

But perhaps the most important question I have is this: what good are we really doing for the Kingdom by forcing such laws against people? It's movements like these that give bitter feelings to those it affects. If this law passes, and I am out in town and I see a single person and I try to talk to them about Christ (let's say they tried to adopt), what do you think their response would be? I know many Christians say they are trying to have a Christian effect by doing this, that they are trying to change the world through legislation. I respect them for their drive and desires and passion, but I just wonder...Jesus tells us how to change the world: to go and spread the Gospel and make disciples by teaching and baptizing. I tried to re-read Matthew 28, and I am pretty sure it does not include, "protest and make signature petitions to have a law passed". I am in no way trying to say we should not vote or support many law that attempt to protect ethical and moral principles but while I think that at some point we have to stand up and say, "this is too far", I see so many Christians that will have debates, arguments, and spend so much of their time trying to convince people who they should vote for. Then I sit and wonder, if they spent that much time trying to convince people why they should go for Jesus, maybe then these political debates wouldn't be needed so much.

All I am asking is, don't we have a much better calling and commission than trying to pass laws against "sinners". We have the opportunity to share the love of Christ and our Father with people, to reach out and show them that God forgives and God loves them. Isn't that greater than any law we could ever pass?