Tony Beam

I have always loved the words of the chorus of Steve Green’s classic song Find Us Faithful.  The chorus says, Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.  May the fire of our devotion light their way.  May the footprints that we leave, lead them to believe.  And the lives we live inspire them to obey.  Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful.  Tony Snow left faithful footprints and a fire of devotion that obviously lit the way for many of his colleagues. 
     I didn’t get word of Tony’s passing until almost 9:30am on Saturday morning.   My first thought was the two brief encounters I had with him both in Washington at events sponsored by Family Research Council Action.  I cherish those meetings because even though we spent very little time together I was encouraged by his infectious optimism and his natural ability to make me feel that while he was talking to me, I was the most important person in the room. 
     From the moment the Fox News Family and gradually all of America learned that Tony had lost his valiant and inspirational battle with colon cancer the accolades poured in from all people great and small.  Brett Baer of Fox News couldn’t hide his emotion as he spoke of the time Tony welcomed him back to the White House pressroom after his newborn son had survived life threatening cardiac surgery.  Even though Tony was enduring the rigors of chemotherapy he emailed Brett often to ask how his son was doing, offering words of encouragement and heartfelt prayer. 
     All of Washington, arguably the most powerful and power hungry place on earth gasped at the passing of this one, good man.  People spoke of Snow in hushed reverence as if they were speaking of some saint of old.  Four things kept rising to the surface as powerbroker after powerbroker remembered their now treasured moments Tony Snow.  He was a man who loved God, his family, his country, and life itself.  He never whined about his condition, complained about his circumstances, or cursed the fact that cancer was an enemy he could not outrun.  In fact, he spoke of how having cancer blessed him by revealing the love of his friends and reminding him of just how precious the gift of a family can be.
     How can we describe in Christian worldview terms how Tony Snow was able to leave such a huge, caring, fingerprint on so many lives and a size fifteen double E Christian footprint on the culture of Washington? The truth is we don’t have to describe it.  The Apostle Paul describes if for us in 2 Corinthians 2:14, But thanks be to God, who always leads us in his triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of Him in every place.  That is exactly what Tony Snow did….he allowed the sweet aroma of Christ to permeate, penetrate, and transform the people and therefore the places he poured himself into. 
     When Tony left the relative safety of his duties at Fox News and the proven success of his nationally syndicated radio show to step into the bear cage of being the President’s Press Secretary, people marveled at how he handled such an adversarial role with remarkable style and grace, The answer once again can be found in God’s Word.  Tony simply let his life display the words of Paul to the church at Ephesus.  Let no unwholesome thing word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.  No matter how raucous and filled with the poison of bitterness the question, Tony’s answer drained every ounce of venom from the questioner with an answer that focused on facts instead of emotions.  His warm smile was the perfect stage for his sharp wit and forthright honesty.  Tony had the rare ability to disarm the verbal missiles that were launched his way before they ever found their target. 
     Finally, the aroma of Christ was evident in how Tony dealt with the cruelty of his disease.  Friends, family, and colleagues were amazed at how he never allowed the cancer to steal his smile nor soften his zest for life.  How was this possible?  Again, Tony lived out the words of Paul this time spoken to the Philippians.  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Because Tony believed in prayer and the promise of life after death, he was able to live out the example of a life of peace that should have been a life in turmoil. 
     In a world that is increasingly concerned about the size of the “carbon footprint” we may leave behind it is good to know that there are still men who live in such a way that when they die they leave behind something much more meaningful than just a carbon footprint.  They leave behind the aroma of Christ. 
    

I am blessed with many vivid memories of my childhood.  I remember the first time I looked through a pair of binoculars.  It was a cheap, pop-up pair that my dad bought me at what used to be called the Ice Capades, which was an older version of the traveling ice-skating programs we see today.  I was fascinated that just by looking through the lens it appeared that I could reach out and touch the skaters.  I literally spent hours gazing through those binoculars until my dad would make me put them away for a while. 

Another memory is not so pleasant.  I remember I hated being sent to my room for misbehaving.  My parents called it “being grounded”.  It meant I couldn’t leave my room until they were convinced I had learned my lesson.  In the late 60’s we didn’t have T.V., computers, cell phones, video games, or any of the other “in room” entertainment devices of today.  So, being grounded meant staying put with nowhere to go and nothing to do.

When I read Acts 1:6-11, I see the beginnings of the early church being tempted toward being grounded or gazing.  Verse 6 says, “So when they had come together, they were asking Him, (the risen Christ) Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”  That is a grounded question asked by disciples with a grounded mindset.  It has been forty days since Jesus rose from the grave.  He spent His time appearing to His followers, speaking to them about the glories of a kingdom that would reside in each one of them once the Holy Spirit came. 

But here they are thinking in physical rather than spiritual terms.  They were seeking what amounted to a political solution to their plight.  They wanted Jesus to remove the iron boot of Roman rule and establish an earthly kingdom where He would rule on the throne of David and restore the glory of Solomon.  They longed for the good old days when Israel had conquered its neighbors and the whole world came to Jerusalem to pay homage and to seek wisdom from Solomon.  

Many in the church today have the same grounded mentality.  They spend much time talking about and longing for the good old days when the church was the center of the community and ministers were considered to be wise community leaders. The church had a tremendous amount of influence from Hollywood to Hoboken.  People lined up on Sunday to go to church as the whole town shut down in honor of the Lord’s Day.  During the week, people lined up to see Charlton Heston bring Moses and Ben Hur to life on the silver screen.  Movies with titles like, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Robe, and Quo Vadis won hearts in the theaters and Oscars at the Academy Awards.  It was a time when the Gospel was, as Paul told Timothy, “in season.”  

But now the Church is no longer the most powerful influence in the community.  Ministers are often suspect and Hollywood has turned organized religion into the d “the devil with the blue dress on.”  What are we to do?  If we sit in our pews and long for the good old days we will be a grounded church.  We will lose what little influence we have left in the world.  We must follow the advice of a t-shirt I saw last week.  Its message was as simple as it was profound.  It said, “The Church has left the building.” 

If the 21st century church is going to transform the culture we have to leave the building.  We must go where the people are, build a bridge of fellowship, and demonstrate the love of Christ even as we gently warn that to reject His love is to eventually feel His wrath.  

Later in Acts 1, the disciples are caught gazing up into the sky where they saw Jesus ascend.  Verse 10 says, “And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them.  They also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?”  The disciples had been given their instructions. They were to go to Jerusalem and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit.  It was not a time for gazing, being spellbound by the glorious sight of Jesus.  It was time for action.  It was time to go to the place where the power from Heaven would be poured out in abundant supply.  Verse 8 carries the promise, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, ad in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”  As I heard one old country preacher say, “They needed to go to the spout where the glory comes out!”

Gazing into heaven can be a good thing if we make sure it doesn’t become the only thing.  There was nothing wrong with me being fascinated with the binoculars to the point of wanting to spend some of my time gazing.  The problem arose when gazing was all I wanted to do.  There is nothing wrong with a church that gazes longingly into heaven, falling before a holy God, asking as Moses asked to see just “a glimpse of His glory.”  But it is easy to give in to the temptation to do nothing but gaze.  We lose our touch with the people God has called us to reach if we become so enraptured by His glory we forget to reflect His glory to the world.  

While believers should always be informed about the issues facing our society in the political arena and we should be good citizens by voting according to the standards of God’s Word, we must never trust in a political solution for our spiritual condition.  While we should revere the past we should see it as a signpost and not a hitching post.  The 21st Century Church must be found neither grounded nor gazing but rather greatly empowered by the Holy Spirit, fulfilling the call to be His witnesses “even to the remotest part of the earth.” 

     For over a week now the press has been hashing and rehashing Dr. James Dobson’s challenge to Barack Obama’s attempt to woe evangelicals.  The 24 -hour cable news talk shows lined up defenders and detractors of Dobson’s analysis of Obama’s 2006 speech on evangelicalism delivered at Call to Renewal’s Covenant for a New America Conference. 
     Dobson accused Obama of “deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology.”  Dobson also criticized Obama’s understanding of involvement in the political process saying he had a “fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.” 
     Jim Wallis, founder and President of Sojourners, which helped sponsor the Covenant for a New America Conference, used his blog to defend Obama by suggesting that Dobson thinks America is a “Christian theocracy.”  Wallis wrote, “Political appeals, even if rooted in religious convictions, must be argued on moral ground rather than as sectarian religious demands….so that the people (citizens), whether religious or not, may have the capacity to hear and respond.”  This sounds very much like the argument Obama made in the Renewal speech when he said, “Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific values.  It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason.”  He went on to say, “Politics depends on our ability to persuade each other of common aims based on a common reality.  It involves the compromise, the art of what’s possible.” 
     Therein lies one of the main problems with Obama’s theology.  He sees truth as something that can be hammered into a compromise position that can then become amenable, not to the set standard of a Holy God, but to the ever changing and ever compromising standards of sinful humans.
     Suppose we apply Obama’s corporate religion of compromise to the sin of slavery.  Would Obama be satisfied with an America that is half slave and half free?  In order to forge a consensus within the public debate, would Obama agree to allow some blacks to remain in bondage to their slave masters?  Of course not!  Slavery was a moral evil that could not be rectified by compromise.  By the same token, most evangelicals today believe abortion to be a moral evil.  It cannot be made amenable or reasonable in any form if we believe that every abortion leads to the death of an innocent, unborn child. 
     On March 3rd of this year, Obama told a crowd at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio that concerning abortion, “the bottom line is that in the end, I think women, in consultation with their pastors, and their doctors, and their family, are in a better position to make these decisions than some bureaucrat in Washington.”  This kind of thinking reduces absolute truth to a simply majority equation.  If a woman, her doctor, her pastor, and her family all agree that killing an unborn child is acceptable then acceptable it is.  I wonder what other moral questions could be decided in this fashion?  If a child molester, his doctor, his pastor, and his family all agree that his actions are acceptable does that make the molesting of child any less of an atrocity? 
     Truth, absolute truth that comes from God’s revelation of Himself in His Word, defies the vote of the majority.  It flies in the face of opinion polls and focus groups.  What makes Barack Obama, Jim Wallis, or anyone else believe the only way truth can be injected into the public arena is by stuffing it with reason and coating it with compromise?
     The Bible describes God’s Word as “living, active, and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”(Hebrews 4:12, NIV).  Whatever arena believers in Jesus Christ choose to engage whether the culture as a whole, society as a part of culture, or specifically, the political arena we must engage as those who are united by what is right according to God, not what is reasonable and amenable according to the political art of compromise.  
     In the same speech at Hocking College, Obama said he believed the Bible condoned civil unions.  He supported his comment saying, “If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.” 
Before evangelicals run out to vote for Obama they need to ask themselves if they really want to support a candidate who says they are Christian but believes Paul’s theological capstone of the New Testament is nothing more than an obscure passage. 
     Many national, evangelical leaders have given Barack Obama a pass when it comes to taking on his Universalist theology and his distorted and politically correct interpretation of God’s Word.  We should all thank Dr. Dobson and Tom Minnery for stepping up to the plate and refusing to allow Obama’s Universalist theology and warped sense of evangelical political expediency to go unchallenged.  

     Former SBC President Dr. Frank Page allowed me the honor of serving on the 2008 Southern Baptist Resolutions Committee.  The work was hard and the hours long but the reward of working with some of the finest, most articulate leaders in the Convention made the experience one I will remember for a lifetime.  All in all, the committee spent about thirty hours meticulously reading all of the resolutions submitted for consideration pairing the final number down to nine.  From the defense of the term “Christmas” against the encroachment of a secular culture to recognizing Israel’s sixty years of survival in the face of tenacious enemies dedicated to her destruction, the committee attempted to address some of the pressing social issues of our day. 

     One such issue was the California Supreme Court decision to overturn the will of the people and allow homosexual couples to marry.  On March 7, 2000, the people of California voted overwhelmingly (61.4%) in favor of Proposition 22 which affirmed, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”  On May 15 of this year, a sharply divided Court (4 to 3) overturned the will of the people setting the stage for same-sex marriages to begin.  On June 16^th, state officials began issuing marriage licenses at approximately 5pm local time.

     This is not the first time the Southern Baptist Convention has passed a resolution condemning homosexual marriage.  Southern Baptists have addressed this issue many times in the last few years with the first resolution affirming the traditional family passing in 1980.  The Convention spoke directly to the issue of same-sex marriage in 2003, resolving to “continue to oppose steadfastly all efforts by any court or state legislature to validate or legalize same-sex marriage or other equivalent unions.”  Since Southern Baptists have spoken definitively and consistently (ten times in the past seventeen years) expressing the collective will of the messengers concerning same-sex marriage, why speak again in 2008? 

     The answer can be expressed in one word….portability.  Massachusetts same-sex marriage law requires that all persons applying for a same-sex marriage license must be a resident of the state.  California has no such law.  Beginning June 16^th, unless the court intervenes to suspend the law until California voters have their say in November defining marriage constitutionally, homosexual couples from any state in the union can travel to California, “marry,” return to their home state and challenge that states marriage laws under the full faith and credit clause of the United States Constitution.  The result will be chaos in the courts and confusion in the home as our cultural and biblical understanding of the family rapidly discentegrates. 

     To fight this latest attempt of an activist court to force its liberal will on an unwilling electorate the messengers of the 2008 Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana resolved to “encourage all Christian pastors in California and in every other state to speak strongly and prophetically concerning the sinful nature of homosexuality and the urgent need to protect biblical marriage in accordance with God’s Word.” We also called on believers everywhere to “pray for the people of California as they seek to right this terrible wrong that has been forced upon them,” and to “pray for the people of every state where biblical marriage in under attack.”  It should be obvious now to even the most ardent state’s rights adherent that the only way we are going to ultimately protect the biblical, cultural, and foundational institution of marriage is with a national marriage amendment.

     While resolving to stand with the people of California to protect traditional marriage, the messengers refused to allow the much proposed school exit strategy to be added to the resolution.  For the past four years, those who believe the way to win the battle to stop the advance of secularism in public schools is to withdraw from the battlefield have strongly suggested that we must demand that all Christians remove their children from the public school system.  School exit proponents are right to decry the moral chaos that is being sanctioned by the California public school system.  In October, the California Legislature passed and Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law SB 777, which now bans in both school texts and activities any discriminatory bias against those who have chosen alternative sexual lifestyles. 

     But calling for an exodus from the public school is not the answer.   The solution is not retreat but a recommitment to retake the public schools for Christ.  Our willingness to allow the encroachment of pure secularism, especially in the schools, has pushed the system to brink of collapse.  We should repent for allowing our children’s minds to be inculcated with immoral ideas born from the unholy union of humanism and moral relativism.  Jesus Christ has called us to engage the culture, specifically to be “in but not of the world.”  In His prayer to the Father before being betrayed, Jesus, speaking of His disciples said, “I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” He went on to clarify that our mission is to go into the world saying, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”  Certainly we shouldn’t simply send our children out into a hostile world alone.   We should go with them and become the light that counters the darkness of the message they hear.  We should be the salt and we should shine the light of God’s truth, knowing that darkness cannot overpower the light.   

     Whether standing for marriage for fighting for our children’s future we must stay in the fight bringing the transforming power of the Gospel to bear in every arena.