When a Pastor Breaks the Law
 

Hi, my name is Ted Tham.  I’m a pastor, and I’ve broken the law.  I went to court the other day and I’ve learned a lot of lessons from my experience.

Lesson One: after 24 years of driving and never having had a speeding ticket, it’s easy to get complacent.  There’s a senior citizen’s home near my house, and I was caught the other day going 60 km/hr in the 40 km/hr zone near that home.

Lesson Two: when facing a police officer who’s about to write you a ticket, there are so many thoughts that run through my head that are very un-Christlike.

“Officer, it must be the end of the month and you’re catching up on your quota of speeding tickets, correct?”
“I can’t afford the demerit points and an increase in my insurance – couldn’t you just write down that I was going 5 or 10 over the limit?”
“Officer, give me a break, I’m a Pastor.  Can’t you see my Bible next to me?  I was just on my way to a Fellowship Counselor meeting where I help people – full-time, in fact!”
“My oh my, I didn’t realize that my speedometer is broken.”
“Why didn’t you stop the guys behind me who were pushing me to go so fast?”
“Those leaves on the tree that blocked the speed sign really are big.”
 

I thank God that I didn’t say any of the above.  But later, as I reflected on the incident, I realized that it is in these kinds of situations where my faith really matters.  Will I lie to save a bit of money?  Will I get personally angry with the police officer?  Or will I simply own up to my sin and admit I was wrong?  What I do and say on a Sunday morning in the pulpit is not where my faith really shows up – it’s in places and situations on Mon-Sat. that really counts.

Lesson Three: God is gracious and merciful.  When I went to the court to pay my fine, the prosecutor reduced the fine without any kind of explanation or excuse needed.

Lesson Four (and the main lesson I learned): God works in mysterious ways.  When I went to the court, I happened to meet the gentleman who was ticketed by the exact same officer at the exact same location for almost the exact same offence and only a few seconds before me.  I had a chance to help him with the court proceedings (English is not his first language) and even drove him home from the court.  We obviously had something in common, and we had a chance to discuss with each other for over three hours as we waited for our time in court.  I was able to share with him what I did, and even though he is not a churchgoer, he expressed a lot of interest in visiting our church in the near future.

I’m driving a lot slower these days, and I’ve got a greater appreciation of not only God’s grace and mercy, but also His ability to turn a bad situation into one that works for good!

I recently heard a comment from a non-Christian that she does not like to go to church, because people in church are so “fake”, they only talk nice things, but they are not really nice to people.

This is not the first time I heard similar comments.  I am aware of the intellectual arguments against such comments.  But the point is people who said things like this are probably sensitive, emotional and moody people, and intellectual arguments would tend to be lost on them.

Some people are born nice, these are few and far between.  The rest of us have to work on being nice.  I suppose being nice, just like love, faith, goodness, kindness, gentleness etc., are Christian virtues that we need to work on by the grace of Christ.  It is only when we stop thinking about our own needs and consider other people’s needs that we can truly be nice to people.

I have worked on being nice ever since I became a Christian in my teenage years, and unfortunately I am still pretty far from there.

My topic says it all. Stephen Harper promised to re-open the gay marriage issue in Parliament in his election compaign. He has not done it yet. He may still do it. Or he may not. The political climate is such that most people do not want to talk about this issue anymore. If Harper raises this issue now, it may cause him to lose a lot of political points. In any event, all he has is a precaurious minority government.

We know that as a politican, Harper should not re-open the issue. But as Christians, we expect that he will keep his promise and do it. Why do we expect Christian politicans to be more “Christian” than “politian”? If a politian claims to be a Christian, like George Bush or Stephen Harper, we expect them not to do anything “unChristianlike”, such as making promises they do not keep, or telling the public partial truths so to get what they want.

But let us ask ourselves. Do we expect ourselves not to do anything “unChristianlike” in our workplace? I am not saying that this is the way we should be. But let’s first reflect on ourselves before we judge others.

Several weeks ago she was called into her boss’s office. According to her boss, an email was sent about her to the Dean of a Faculty of a certain university, which shall remain unnamed. In the email, she was alleged for 3 things which she supposedly did to block clinicians from taking on students this term. The fact was that she was instructed by her boss to notify the university of their inability to commit to a student plan because of a staffing shortage. The allegations were unsubstantiated, and she submitted proof of email communications between herself and detailed circumstances regarding the staffing shortage which prevented them from their student committment. Her boss was completely supportive but was shocked about the false allegations. Several follow-up emails followed between her boss and the university to clarify the situation, but they remained unapologetic and continued to refer to “actions” on her behalf. When her boss informed her of the above, she laughed, to which her boss asked, “Why aren’t you upset?”, and to which she replied, “I expect nothing less of the human race”. In fact, she was also too stunned to consider the full impact of all that had occurred.

The next day, she happened to be reading Psalm 119 in her quiet time, which read “Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees.”. Two days later, it began to sink in that she was the convenient scapegoat, or unfortunate messenger, or the “sacrificial lamb”. Walking into her fellowship meeting that evening, the special speaker began to remind them of the “cross” or “sacrifice” that all need to carry for Jesus, who was the supreme “sacrificial lamb”. Another two days later, when the full impact of all of this began to hit home, she began contemplating all of the possible purposes of this for her…when another guest speaker spoke from Rev. 2 about slander at the Church in Smyrna.

By this point, she was 3 times reassured by the Lord that he is in compplete control of what has happened. Questions which undoubtedly arose from this scenario and others similar to this might be:

What a way to end Oct? Finance minister Jim Flaherty announced the taxation of income trusts on the eve of Halloween causing HUGE dishevel in the financial world. Not only will this stop companies like BCE and Telus from converting to Income Trust, it will effect all existing income trusts and with them the mutual funds, pension funds and the landscape of investing in Canada.

What’s that? Oh, you thought this is the Blog site for Project Contempo? That you were expecting “Christian” blogs and not a commentary on the financial sector? What does this have to do with Christians like you and me?

Well, let me remind you that Project Contempo is founded with the purpose of breaking the “sacred” and “secular” dichotomy. It is to facilitate discussions which would help us to look at all parts of our lives as “Christian”. So, your “business” is God’s business. Your finances, your investments, your company (should you work for BCE, Telus or any other Income Trusts) is God’s business.

Let me throw this back at you then,

Question:

1. Do you think converting your company from “corporation” to “Income Trust” thus avoiding taxes is a move that conforms to the “Christian” way of doing things?
2. Do you think it is ethical for the Conservatives to break their election promise not to tax the trusts in order to prevent more companies from exploiting the “tax loophole”?
3. This is for those who own Income Trusts in your portfolios as well as any of you who have investments, you took a big hit today in the markets, were you angry? And if so, was that anger a “righteous” Christian anger, or did it just reflect your carnal desire for earthly treasurers?