Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

By now I’m sure you are all aware that the 17 year-old military policy of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” regarding gays in the military has been repealed by congress and signed into law today by President Obama.

This is not a piece regarding that particular legislation, far from it in fact.

I’ve learned over time that, in spite of whatever the people may think, whether pro or con on any issue, the government and the Congress are basically going to do what they want to do. Is that an overly negative view regarding politics and the government and our role in the functions of said government? Not as I see it. I see it as an extremely pragmatic view in light of what King David tells us in the Psalms.

In Psalm 2 by inspiration of the Holy Spirit David asks an important question that, whenever things such as this recent vote on this policy (or other governmental action for that matter) comes up I find myself asking.

“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” Fortunately God, through the Psalmist, doesn’t leave us alone to answer this question. He provides us the answer:

“The kings of the earth take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.” And what does God do when these things come to pass when the kings of the earth take counsel against Him? The Psalmist says, “He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.”

No doubt these are great and comforting words! Whenever we see government engaged in things that go against the firm counsel that the Lord has provided in His word it is not for us, the Christian church, to become overly vexed to the point of “wailing and gnashing” our teeth; God has everything under control. Yet this is exactly what will happen in these next few months in the majority of Christian churches across this land. Pastors of all kinds will set their hair on fire and rail against the President, Congress, the Supreme Court and even the local dog catcher (if necessary). They will wail and bemoan this decision by the government as if it was somehow either unexpected or impossible to conceive of.

I used to be involved, for a long time in my younger years, in the political process. Before I became a Seventh-day Adventist I made a decided effort to never vote again or take part in the political process. The straw that broke the proverbial camels back for me was the 2003 Governors election in California. That circus literally turned me off of politics for good.

I began to see that politics was ideally just a show. Little did I realize that three years later I would step inside a Seventh-day Adventist church and two years after that what I would read from some little old lady (with no more than a third grade education and hit in the head with a rock mind you) that would further enlighten me on the absolute fruitlessness of entertaining political questions.

“Our work is to watch, and wait, and pray. Search the Scriptures. Christ has given you warning not to mingle with the world. We are to come out from among them and be separate, “and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18). Whatever the opinions you may entertain in regard to casting your vote in political questions, you are not to proclaim it by pen or voice. Our people need to be silent upon questions which have no relation to the third angel’s message. If ever a people needed to draw nigh to God, it is Seventh-day Adventists. There have been wonderful devices and plans made. A burning desire has taken hold of men or women to proclaim something, or bind up with something; they do not know what. But the silence of Christ upon many subjects was true eloquence.

My brethren, will you not remember that none of you have any burden laid upon you by the Lord to publish your political preferences in our papers, or to speak of them in the congregation, when the people assemble to hear the Word of the Lord.

We are not as a people to become mixed up with political questions. All would do well to take heed to the Word of God, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers in political strife, nor bind with them in their attachments. There is no safe ground in which they can stand and work together. The loyal and the disloyal have no equal ground on which to meet.

He who breaks one precept of the commandments of God is a transgressor of the whole law. Keep your voting to yourself. Do not feel it your duty to urge everyone to do as you do.”—Letter 4, 1898.

These words from Mrs. White have given me comfort to know that my decision to abstain from voting and the political process was indeed the right one. Moreover it is amazing just how much these words are foreign to many Christians today. Many Christians today hold out all hope that they can change this country through the political process. Such rational seems extremely misplaced in light of the scripture from Psalm 2 and considering the record of this country - especially since the turn of the 20th century.

It’s not as if we Christians haven’t been warned that we would see things like this recent decision by the Congress coming to pass. Christians have been given advanced notice by our Lord that things like this would indeed take place.

And even though God gives the kings of the earth this instruction He has also given them, as well as us, a way to escape the judgment to come:

“Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give [thee] the heathen [for] thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth [for] thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish [from] the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed [are] all they that put their trust in him.” – Psalm 2:5-12

In spite of what the kings of the world may do we can have great confidence in the promises of the Lord and the redemption He promises to those in Christ Jesus.