Kingdom Self-Righteousness

A few hours ago a newborn baby was pulled from a toilet pipe in China. The baby girl was presumably abandoned by her mother for financial reasons. Baby girls are not as desirable as baby boys in China, and if a genetic condition or deformity is detected at birth, they often join the group of approximately 10,000 babies reported as abandoned each year. In this specific case, the rescued baby had no genetic issues, and is expected to be fine.

When I was a kid I was taught to view the Chinese government as evil. They were a communist country with lots of secrets, and the immoral steps they took to prevent overpopulation proved God couldn’t possibly be on their side! As a steady stream of unwanted Chinese children made their way to our country my perceptions of a place where life is cheap and government is oppressive were reinforced. The public punctuation point for Chinese culture came at the Beijing Olympics when a beautiful little girl pretended to sing the revolutionary national anthem as a girl deemed less attractive gave the actual performance off-stage.

We all thought it: “of all the arrogant, dishonest and disgraceful things to do! That just shows what happens when communists control the truth.”

Lest you think badly of me, I am not in any way sympathetic to communism. I believe in the common good. I just don’t think government should be in the business of redistributing wealth and controlling commerce.

Still, I am shocked that people in our culture are willing to believe the best about the horrific news that Planned Parenthood employees were trying to sell baby body parts, but our news agencies don’t hesitate to let us know about the tragedy of a baby girl stuffed down a toilet in China. Both are tragic! But somehow we like to believe the best about ourselves and the worst about others.

The figures regarding abortion numbers in our country are documented, and I am not going to spend time here recounting all of the reasons the practice is immoral and destructive. What I am concerned about is the apparent absence of outrage from the American church over the Planned Parenthood videos. Perhaps we are afraid to speak until all of the facts are in. Certainly, there have been times when Christians have embarrassed themselves by stirring up trouble based on bad information. Or, it could be we are hoping the problem is isolated, and Planned Parenthood is, as its leader claims, a “compassionate” organization.

I say “no.” It is possible to show compassion to mothers with unwanted children without taking a child’s life. And the claim the Planned Parenthood videos were “heavily edited” and should therefore be disallowed is insane. Too many people have lost their jobs over short video clips or soundbites to make me buy such logic.

Do we really believe we are so righteous God will somehow overlook our sin? Does the good we do cancel out the evil we ignore? More importantly, do we believe God is going to cut us some slack because of our good track record, or our constitution which grants us the freedom to worship His Son?

Our kingdom citizenship isn’t tied to a track of land, and we should not presume an inherited righteousness. I have not decided how I am going to personally engage in the public debate over this present situation. But if nothing else, we must recognize we are not immune from God’s wrath. He blessed us and He can “un-bless” us. Really? But we are a Christian nation! We are the moral authority of the world and everyone wants to come here! Look at what we have!

Yes. Look at what we have. And look at what we have lost.