Justice for the Winklers

Recently, I've been reflecting on the whole concept of justice and how it relates to the Christian community. Certainly God is concerned with justice. He repeats this again and again in the Hebrew Scriptures (Amos 5:24, Jeremiah 21:11-14). We see justice administered in the New Testament church as well. In I Corinthians 5:4-5 Paul counsels the church to expel a brother who was having sexual relations with his step mother. Our visceral reaction to this is that God is concerned with justice because he is acting out of his holiness and revulsion at sin. He cannot accept sin or the presence of sin so he has to punish it, destroy it, do away with it. Therefore we see God destroying the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, striking down Ananias and Sapphira, and many other incidents as being indicative of his holiness. You can't come before God with your sinful self. Sin has to pay the consequences.

As true as all of this is, I think we sometimes miss the point of what God is ultimately trying to do in the world. In the beginning, even before he creation of the world, there was relationship. God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in loving communion. God is a community, a relationship. After all, love cannot exist without an object. This is what I think the Bible mean by the phrase "God is Love (I John 4:8)." He is communion. Out of this communion, this love, God created human beings. We see a continuation of that holy communion in the Garden of Eden. Only this time, mankind is included in that relationship. Adam and Eve share that relationship with God and each other. When sin comes, the relationship is broken. The rest of the Bible is the story of God implementing a plan to repair the relationship. The full expression of this plan is Christ's death on the cross to remove that sin and thus restore the relationship.

So how does this relate to justice? If you think about it, if God's ultimate purpose is reconciliation and healing, isn't his concern for justice an extension of that? If God were only concerned with justice for it's own sake, why would he have sent Jesus? Just punish all of us with death, and go on. No, God's ultimate goal is reconciliation, healing, community. He wants that relationship that was broken back in the garden.

I think that if we have a true Bible based concept of justice, we will see that the goal should be healing and a restoration of what has been broken by sin. Does this mean that we should set Mary Winkler free tomorrow and not have any trial whatsoever? No. But it should not mean the blind administration of punishment either. We need to remember that the goal of Paul's instruction to the church in Corinth was not to keep the church pure. The church was not full of perfect people in the first place. The goal of the expulsion was to bring about reconciliation. We see this clearly in II Corinthians 2:5-11 where Paul calls for the forgiveness and acceptance of the penitent believer. If he were concerned with simple, blind justice, he would have simply administered the punishment without thinking about it. Interestingly enough, he outlines the goal of reconciliation 2 chapters later in II Corinthians 5. We even see Jesus doing the exact same thing in John 8:1-11, with the woman caught in adultery. The law said she should be stoned, period. So why wasn't she killed? Did Jesus not understand the Jewish law? Jesus understood the goal of justice. It wasn't just to punish. Ultimately, it was about reconciliation.

So how should we think of Justice as it relates to Mary Winkler? If we have a Biblical understanding of justice, our ultimate goal should be the same as that of God's, reconciliation. Many have marveled at the ability of the Winkler family to accept and forgive Mary for killing their son. I think that a large part of this is their Biblical understanding of what God is trying to do in the world. He's trying to bring about wholeness, reconciliation. God wants a relationship with us and he wants us to have that with each other. Sin is all about breaking relationships. God is about the business of mending them. It's not some peripheral issue. It's central to the mission of God's people in the world. The Winklers seem to understand this. I wonder if the rest of us do.

Let's try this again.

We'll you have to hand it to the producers of Nancy Grace's show. At least they made the right phone call this time and got someone that could speak about our beliefs with some sense of clarity. I think Rubel (Ruble?) did about as good a job as you could ecxpect under the circumstances. I just wish NG had given Rubel time to answer her questions.

GRACE: Is the Church of Christ a cult? Is it cult-like? Did that play into this murder in any way? With us, Dr. Ruble Shelly, professor of philosophy and religion at Rochester College. He`s a Church of Christ minister. He knows the Winkler family. Let`s take a look. Single leader, cult-like qualities, trying to isolate members, members happy and enthusiastic -- I don`t think that`s a bad thing -- experimental rather than logical, hide what they teach, say they`re the only true group. Dr. Shelly, response?

DR. RUBLE SHELLY, CHURCH OF CHRIST, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY: It certainly doesn`t fit the criteria you just gave. We certainly have never created those charismatic personalities. We`re a network of independent, local churches. And your guests so far, I`m the only one who has to plead guilty to being a member of the Church of Christ. And Churches of Christ certainly are not cultic in any of that classic sense. We`re a conservative, religious group in the Christian tradition. You`d ask one of our members, and we`d say we jump right off the pages of the New Testament. Historically, we come out of what`s called the American Restoration movement, but the cultic label -- I can`t imagine anyone sticking that label.

GRACE: Dr. Shelly, what is the role of women in the Church of Christ?

SHELLY: Well, we believe that God created the human race male and female in his image and that Paul said there is no male or female in Christ. There are some male leadership options, in terms of elders of churches, and most preaching ministries that are reserved to males, but that`s not a cultic fact.

GRACE: Why? Why?

SHELLY: Well, that`s because of a biblical interpretation issue that Southern Baptists and many other groups share in common with Churches of Christ about male leadership in local churches. Churches of Christ are a conservative religious group.

GRACE: OK, wait, wait, wait. Dr. Shelly, no offense, by why, why only male leadership? Does anybody remember Mary Magdalene, ding ding?

SHELLY: Well, Mary Magdalene was not an apostle. All of the apostles were, in fact...

GRACE: Well, Judas was, and that certainly isn`t saying very much.

SHELLY: Well, we don`t want to quarrel with gender issues, with regard to salvation. And probably, I`m more broad-minded and a bit more liberal in terms of things that I would affirm that women have a right to do in church leadership than some of the people in our churches, but generally...

GRACE: OK. Dr. Shelly, let me move on, because I agree with you.

SHELLY: No, you asked the question as to where it came from.

GRACE: Yes, and I`d love an answer.

SHELLY: First, Timothy 2:11 and 2:12 talks about male leadership in churches. And that text has a great deal hung on it by religious conservatives to say that fathers in homes and elders in churches as male leadership, protective leadership, not abusive leadership.

GRACE: Dr. Shelly, do members of the Church of Christ church believe that that is the only way to heaven?

SHELLY: No. Churches of Christ began in an historical movement whose slogan was, "Christians only, not the only Christians"... (CROSSTALK)

GRACE: No, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, don`t need a history lesson, as much as I appreciate it. We`re only an hour long. Do you believe that Jews and Muslims...

SHELLY: Well, you asked the question. The answer is no, because our slogan is...

GRACE: ... will also go to heaven?

SHELLY: Christians only, not the only Christians. We don`t believe we`re the only Christians or the only ones going to heaven.

GRACE: OK, now, you know...

SHELLY: There may be individuals who do.

GRACE: You have got a great sense of career as a lawyer.

SHELLY: Churches of Christ are a loose network of independent churches. And I suspect you could find someone who believes most anything on your scale.

GRACE: Reverend, yes, no, do you believes that Jews or Muslims can go to heaven?

SHELLY: I believe that Jews and Muslims are to be shared the gospel of Christ. Now, that`s a much larger issue.

GRACE: Gotcha, OK. All right. I get it.

SHELLY: I do believe that Jesus is the only path to heaven, of course. Conservative Christians believe that.


It is clear to me though that Nancy's show is less about learning the facts than it is about portraying her personal views passed off as fact. She's a prosecuting attorney, not a journalist. If the facts don't fit her view of the world, she'll cut you off. What her show needs is a good defense attorney. What's Roger Cossack doing these days?

A Church of Christ Connection

This past Monday night, Nancy Grace hosted a news program on CNN Headline News concerning the latest news on the Matthew Winkler murder. Wanting to learn more about the church in which Matthew was a minister, Nancy called on Baptist minister, Tom Rukala, to appear on the show and provide some insight into Churches of Christ. Here is a portion of their exchange.

NANCY GRACE:I want to go to pastor Tom Rukala, joining us tonight, a special guest, a Baptist minister. I`ve been researching the Church of Christ. I don`t know that much about it. What can you tell me?

PASTOR TOM RUKALA, BAPTIST PASTOR: Well, the Church of Christ is a relatively
new church. It was started about 150 years ago by Alexander Campbell. And
it`s, unfortunately, a very legalistic sect, and they tend to use methods of intimidation and pressure tactics. They claim that they are the only ones going to heaven, and all other people are condemned to hell. So in case…

GRACE: Uh-oh, I`m in trouble. But I already knew that.

(LAUGHTER)

GRACE: Now, wait a minute. What more can you tell me?

RUKALA: Well, they claim that if you`re not baptized by one of their ministers, that you`re doomed to hell, even if you`re a believer in Jesus Christ, which, of course, breaks completely from the traditional Christian view that all those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved because we`re saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose again. For the Church of Christ folks, that`s not enough. You
have to be a member of their narrow sect. It`s a very exclusive group. And if
you`re not a member of their sect, you`re condemned.

GRACE: You know, Pastor, you keep saying “sect.” “Sect.” You make it sound like a cult.

RUKALA: It kind of is a borderline cult, unfortunately. I don`t want to make it out to be some kind of Hare Krishna group, but it has cult-like characteristics and…

GRACE: In what sense?

RUKALA: Well, in the sense of the exclusivism, the attitude that they are the only ones who know the truth. The tactics that they use are sometimes just — not only un-biblical but unethical, and they can be very ungracious, unfortunately.

Now as a member of a Church of Christ here in Jackson, I will say that there is some truth to what Rukala is saying. (I won't get into his other factual inaccuracies.) I have encountered some people in Churches of Christ which would line up perfectly with this description. But the vast majority of Churches of Christ are not like this at all. To make a blanket statement saying that all Churches of Christ are a "kind of borderline cult," that's false and inflamitory. The fact is, there is a wide variety of opinion and practice in Churches of Christ. Since we have no governing body (thank God) we have no final arbiter of church doctrine or practice other than local church elders. Some churches are quite open while others are very closed. While I think you would be hard pressed to find a church that could be defined as liberal in the classic sense of the word, most Churches of Christ fall in the broad spectrum of conservative Christian churches in the United States. In fact, most members, even those in the most conservative COC are just everyday Christians trying to live their lives in a godly way.

But why would you call a Baptist minister to tell you about the Church of Christ? Would you call a Methodist minister to comment on the Catholic Church? If Nancy wanted to give her viewers some insight into Churches of Christ, why not call Milton Sewell, President of Freed-Hardeman University? He is in a position to provide insight into the broad majority of views in Churches of Christ in this region. Or why not ask Max Lucado, minister at Oak Hills Church. He was on the show the same night discussing Terry Shiavo's death last year. How difficult would it have been to find someone really qualified? My suspicion is that the producers have no interest in finding the real facts. Their goal is titillate and inflame their viewers with the most salacious details that they can find. Don't get me wrong, I don't fault Tom Rukala. He was speaking from his experience. The problem I have is with the producers of this show.

Personally, I have many friends who are members of other mainline religious groups. I accept them as brothers in Christ. I find it frustrating that these barriers to fellowship keep getting in the way of real unity on the Body of Christ. I'm not saying that we don't have real differences. We do. But those differences are made out to be much larger than they really are. I'm sure I'll be writing more on this later. For now, I think I'll change the channel.

What Good Can Come?

Last night, as I watching CNN and listening to their take on the latest news from Selmer regarding the Matthew Winkler murder, my wife quipped what many have been thinking regarding this whole incident, "There's nothing good that can come from this." While I understand what she is saying, this is a tragic situation for all involved, the children, the wife and mother, and ultimately Matthew Winkler. But I'm not so sure that nothing good can come from this. Our God is the the God of redemption. He takes what is wrecked and ruined by sin and brokenness and somehow brings about healing and, against all odds, makes things whole again. We see this in our individual lives, but we can also see it in the interwoven lives of a community.

This morning I read in the local paper how Matthew's parents Dan and Diane Winkler have embraced Mary as their daughter and have extended forgiveness to her. They have also stayed close to Clark Freeman, Mary's father. Some have somehow interpreted this as a justifying Mary's actions. But I don't see it that way. Sure, it doesn't make sense for a family to embrace the woman who murdered their son. But it doesn't make sense for God to forgive us who tortured and murdered His son either. The families are demonstrating the love of God toward all of us in this tragedy. For that, I am humbled and thankful to God for his amazing grace and love.

I've always heard that you don't understand the love of God till you have children. While that may be true, I haven't really seen the love of God through Christ till I saw it demonstrated by the Winklers and Clark Freeman. Can any good come from this tragic situation? It already has. God is at work here.

The Mary We Knew

The big news around Jackson this week has of course been the murder of Selmer minister, Matt Winkler. Unless you've been living under a rock, you've already heard the story of how his wife, Mary, apparently shot her husband in the back and then fled with their children to Orange Beach, Alabama. Mary Winkler has since been extradited to Tennessee to face charges of first degree murder.

What makes this story so compelling is the seemingly normal life that they had, and what could have so tragically gone wrong. TBI investigators already know the motive but have remained tight lipped about revealing the reasons why a quiet minister's wife would murder her husband. They have ruled out infidelity but have remained ambiguous on the question of marital or child abuse.

So perhaps we need to ask the question, who was the real Mary Winkler? Who was the real Matt Winkler? What could we have known before this tragedy struck in order to prevent it? These are the questions that the Selmer community is dealing with now. Although she was not as gregarious as her husband Matt, Mary seemed to her friends and relatives to be a normal happy housewife and mother. Many times I have read stories quoting friends, "This was not the Mary we knew." Maybe there were warning signs that just went unnoticed. Or even more disturbing, perhaps there were no warning signs. We may never know.

I know from speaking to many ministers and their wives that the inability to share struggles is a particularly acute problem for families involved in pastoring a church. The demands and hours are endless, the private family time is variable to nonexistent, and their lives are under constant scrutiny. Then there is the financial aspect of the situation. If a minister reveals that he has a problem with drinking or greed, will that get him fired? Communities of faith must struggle with this issue and become more sensitive to the needs of pastors and their families.

But one disturbing question that faces all of us is what do we really know about each other? Do we really know what's going on in each other's lives. Sure, there are those of us who wear our emotions on our sleeve. But there are also those of us who feel uncomfortable sharing the real person inside us. Can we create an environment of safety where our burdens can be shared? Why do some of us like Mary, choose to keep our struggles and frustrations bottled up? This is a question that all of us need to ask. For Matt and Mary Winkler, the time for those questions has passed.

Psalms at Church

One of the most fascinating books of the Bible is Psalms. It is so full of raw emotion that sometimes we wonder why it was canonized. To be honest, I often find myself embarrassed by their language and tenor. It's almost like being caught coming out of the shower. It's not like we don't have these emotions and we tacitly acknowledge that we are at times frustrated with God. We just don't want to expose ourselves to the whole world. Even our joyful moments of sheer bliss seem somehow out of place when we read publicly the Song of Solomon. The language there is sometimes so graphic that we shy away from what the Biblical writers wanted us to hear.

We all know what goes on behind the scenes in our little worlds, we just don't want to sing it out loud for everyone to hear. But that is exactly what the people of God did. Psalms was the hymnal of the Christian church as well as the Synagogue. It's hard to imagine singing Psalm 109 or even Psalm 64 in our modern day assemblies. But that is exactly what they did.

Today it seems like we only want to give voice to the "nice" emotions. We want to sing of walking "hand in hand with Jesus" but when was the last time you heard a song expressing grief or sorrow. There are songs in our hymnals that reflect those feelings (Precious Lord, Take My Hand), we just tend to shy away from them. After all, we figure, people want to leave church feeling good. Right?

The problem with this is that by doing so, we cover over the reality of pain and frustration in people's lives. Worshipers come to church with all types of emotions. A woman with a new born baby is full of joy. A man who just went through a divorce is crushed with pain. A couple facing financial problems is frustrated. It seems that there are as many different emotions as there are worshipers. But I wonder if we provide a voice for all of them in our worship services, or do we just want to sweep the feeling of anger, disappointment, and frustration under the proverbial rug.

I'm afraid that in doing so we communicate a subtle message to our brothers and sisters who are struggling with life. We say,"We're not struggling with our Christian walk. A true Christian doesn't have those feelings" Or worse yet, "You must be the only one who feels that way." It's a subtle, insidious message that eats away at the legitimacy of worship itself. When worship reflects less and less on the realities of the Christian walk, it comes to be seen as more and more irrelevant and frustrating.

Perhaps we need to re-read the Psalms. We might even dare to read them in church sometime.

"Beware the Ides of March"

It doesn't seem like it's been 4 years (it seems longer than that!) since the boys were born. But today is their birthday. Happy Birthday Cameron and Forrest! I love you both!

-Daddy

Remembering the Saints

One of the bummers about being a Protestant is that you never hear stories about the "Saints." And no, I'm not talking about the football team in New Orleans. To us Protestants, the word Saint has been diluted down to mean "any Christian." I understand the logic behind this, after all we are equally sinful and equally redeemed in God's eyes. But we miss out on some of the great stories of Christian people from the past.

Just yesterday I was at my kid's school eating lunch with my oldest daughter when the subject of St. Patrick's Day came up. I asked the kids at the table if they knew who St. Patrick was. None of them did. I proceeded to tell them the hair raising tale of a young Roman boy who was kidnapped by raiders from Ireland. He was taken from his home in London and made a slave. A few years later, at age 22, he managed to escape and make it back to his family in London. One would think that this would be the end of it except for God's call on his life. After studying to become a minister, Patrick felt compelled to go back as a Christian missionary to this pagan culture to bring them the good news of Jesus. Ireland today is known as a Christian nation because of the work of St. Patrick and other brave missionaries. He was one of the first international Christian missionaries and certainly the most successful.

There are also many other stories that need to be told, St. Nicholas, the generous Bishop who gave of his abundance in so many anonymous ways, St. Valentine, the minister who gave his life so others could be married. There are many others. Instead we are treated to being pinched for not wearing green, giving our wives and girlfriends heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, and over-indulging in gift-giving while racking up credit card debt. Isn't it time that the Protestant churches set aside our anti-Catholic bigotry to tell the stories of these people of God who transformed their world as well as ours?

I Choose You

There's nothing quite like being chosen. To have someone look over a crowd of humanity and say, "I choose you!" And then motion for you to come over and be received. When I was a kid we always seemed to have this ritual for picking up teams. You select 2 captains then have a mini-draft. The best players are selected first, then the so-so players. Finally, you get down to the last few and everyone just loses interest. I remember how special t felt when someone said, "I'll choose Joel." What a feeling to not be chosen because you were pitied, but because you were worth something. You had value in someone's eyes. When you get married, it's special because that one person that you love. The one person you want to spend the rest of you life with, walks down the aisle, holds your hand and says, "of all the people on this planet, I choose you." What an amazing thing to be chosen to a team of just two.

Jesus makes the same kind of statement in John chapter 6. In verse 44 Jesus says that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father "draws him." In other words, you can't just join the team, you have to be chosen. Now this goes against everything that most Evangelical Protestants are taught from our youth. You have to "make a decision for Chirst." You have to "obey the gospel." It's all about what you have to do. No only that, we are told that God just throws his invitation to the wind and whoever comes, comes. But somehow this cheapens the call itself. If God calls everyone willy-nilly, then it seems like God loves humanity but not necessarily you. It's like when someone loves you even though they don't particularly like you. But Jesus makes this amazing statement to his disciples at the end of the chapter. After Peter says "who else is there to go to?" Jesus replies "I choose you." Not just everyone, not just anyone, no, Jesus looks at me in the eye and says, "I choose you." Can anything be finer, more uplifting than that?

The Number of Our Days

In Psalms 90 verse 10, Moses makes a profound request of God. "Teach us to number our days, so that we may gain a heart of wisdom." So what exactly is Moses asking God here? I think that he is trying to tell us that part of being a wise person is understanding the uniqueness of each day. After all we only have a certain number of them to enjoy.

One of the biggest lies that Satan tell us is that we have all the time in the world. There's nothing special about today. There will be hundreds more just like it. The sun will come up tomorrow and we'll drag ourselves to work another day. Same old, same old. You can always hug your kids or tell your wife you love her tomorrow. The only problem is, it's not true.

I wish sometimes that we knew exactly how many days we had. As we grow older we could count them down one by one. I'm sure we would treat each one as special gift. But in fact, that is the reality. Each day we have is a special gift. A gift time that God has granted us to use any way we wish.

This week I turn 40. Many people call this middle age but I have always thought this was awfully presumptuous. I figured that I passed middle age ten years ago. I may have passed it 20 years ago. Who knows. The fact is, however many days I have left, there are only so many of them left. And since I can't relive any of them, each is a special gift. Each day holds its own promise and joys. Like Moses, my prayer is that God will teach me that, in the end, the only thing I have in this life is time. Understanding that I have only so much of it, that is the beginning of wisdom.

The Fruits of Choice

Call it the law of unintended consequences, or just call it a legal long shot. A men's rights group (is it possible to have such a thing a "men's rights" anyway?) is filing a lawsuit in Saginaw, Michigan to allow men to opt out of paying child support. The reasoning goes something like this. Women have the opiton of either having an abortion or carrying the child to term. Since the law provides them with a choice, then the law discriminates against men by forcing them to pay child support when it's their choice to not accept the responsibility of the child. The lawsuit is being filed on behalf of Matt Dubay by the National Center for Men. It's being called the "Roe v. Wade for Men."

I shudder to think of the unintended consequences if this case is won. Just imagine the pressure felt by pregnant women to go through with an abortion after discovering that she would receive no support from her boyfriend. I wonder what all those in the pro choice movement feel about this. If you are for choice and freedom, then you would think this lawsuit makes sense. I doubt we'll hear much from the "pro choice" crowd on this one though. This is probably a choice they'd prefer not to be "pro"about. It is however a fruit of the idlotry of choice.

Becoming as Children

In Matthew 18:3 Jesus says "Unless you bcome as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." It's often been discussed as to what exactly Jesus meant by this statement. Was he speaking of humility, purity, or some other aspect of childlike behavior. We all know that people are created in the image of God. Does an innocent child reflect God's glory more than an adult?

A recent AP story may shed some light on this discussion. Psychology researcher Felix Warneken conducted a number of pshychological experements to test the levels of altruism in small children. His tests consisted of dropping items in the presence of toddlers to see if they would help. Warneken neither asked for assistance from the children nor gave praise. What he found was astounding. Over and over again, children offered to help whenever it appeared that he struggled wth a task. When he conducted the same tests on chimps he recieved a similar response but not near the level that he saw in the toddlers. Apparently, what apears as altruistic behavior in the animal world is really behavior that serves the needs of the individual as well. Only in humans did he see truly altruistic behavior.

This reasearch leads me to believe that there is a certain God image that appears in our DNA. The ability to love and care for others in a completely self-sacrificial way is perhaps one aspect of what Jesus was speaking of in Matthew 18. If altruistic behavior is what sets us apart from the animals then perhaps Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is the fullest expression of what it means to be truly human.