So last week it was the hate filled preacher in Arizona. This week, the high school football coach takes a bunch of his players to hear a "motivational speaker." Eight of the kids came back baptized born again Christians. Eight decisions for Christ. Powerful and moving I am sure. But the decisions had no family involvement, no counsel with mom or dad or regard for the family's home church or religious traditions.
Can this be justified? Now, I am all in favor of young people believing and being baptized. That part of it is great. Praise the Lord that young people hear and believe. But are these the proper circumstances? Is this morally right? Is this within the rights or responsibility of the coach? Is the church playing the game of converts at any cost?
Number One, Any baptism pool I have ever used takes at least twenty minutes to fill. That tells me that it was planned before hand to be used. And so this was not a spontaneous decision like jumping down in the creek for baptism. Someone had to think in advance that we might have some baptisms tonight.
Number Two, a "motivational speaker" was how this was billed. Not an evangelist, not a minister, not even a Christian motivational speaker. And yet the speaking part clearly encouraged the young people towards repentance, belief, and baptism. This tells me that there is some slight of hand going on. Some kind of deception either aimed at the parents or the kids.
Number Three, for better or for worse, we have successfully separated church and state in this country. And since the public schools are within the realm of state, a school function (or team function) that involves a directly religious and/or spiritual message crosses a line somewhere.
Number Four, why would the sponsoring church fail to counsel with and discuss the kid's decision with the families? Must the convert be baptised immediately? Is there any justifiable reason to not simply sit down with Mom or Dad and talk about baptism before hand? Fear of rejection? Fear of the parents forbidding? That is possible. But that is a much less likely scenario than totally alienating the family and further damaging the overall witness of the church. And making it on CNN.
Look, I am a Christian, I am a minister and I love to see young people make decisions for Christ and be baptised. All in favor of it and I wish more people would get serious about spreading the word.
But we do not need to spread the word under false pretenses. We do not need to practice slight of hand spirituality. We do not need to corrupt our already shaky integrity by high jacking the football team to go to a revival meeting.
What we do need is to love people, respect people, share the Word of God in a peaceable and rational way. What we do need is to look and act a little more like Jesus, and a little less like used car salesmen.
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