Silent? Not Now!

…a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; Ecclesiastes 3:7b

 

There is a story about a day during the Holocaust that a train full of Jewish prisoners, on their way to a death camp stopped outside of a church in Germany. It was Sunday morning so the church was full. The accounts say that the people on the train were screaming and yelling for help.

In response, the church sang louder so they could not hear them.

There was not one Christian in that church (as far as we know) who was willing to go out and try to set the prisoners free.

The person sharing this story today was relating it to the silence of the church about the number of children killed in abortion clinics. Some of them within blocks of our homes and churches.

This is truly an evil that has to be stopped. This is a source of polluting our land by “shedding innocent blood.” God does not tolerate the shedding of innocent blood! (Numbers 35:33)

Our silence about it is allowing more babies to be killed.

Proverbs 6:16-19 says, There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,  a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,  a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers (emphasis mine).

7 things that are an abomination to God. Abortion is not the only issue we need to speak up about. As we hear more and more about how the church (and not just Roman Catholic) has protected evil leaders and allowed the sexual assaults on young people, we have to see that Christians have been silent for too long.

We have learned to be silent in the face of sin. Worse, we have taught the next generation to be silent about it, too.

Actions, or lack thereof, have consequences. In the face of encouraging silence by setting that example, sometimes deliberately telling children to be quiet about abuse, the people of God have enabled a lot of sin to continue. More and more people are hurt by our silence.

We have not taught girls (and boys) that God expects us to cry out in cases of sexual assault (Deuteronomy 22:25). There are consequences God stipulates for rape.  A rapist is to be put to death (Deuteronomy 22:25).

When people are silent about sin for too long, there are rippling effects that make the consequences so much greater. “Now” is always the time to speak out about sin.

So many have suffered as a result of silence; dead babies and traumatized post-abortive mothers, more assaulted children, Catholic school teachers and personnel who have lost their retirement benefits to pay lawsuit settlement costs, and on and on.

Our silence makes us complicit in putting more innocent people at risk. If you are a witness, you have a great responsibility to protect the next victim.

As Ecclesiastes (at top) says, there is a time to keep silent. That time is not now.