Jesus at the Supreme Court

Three people claiming the name of Jesus took their cases all the way to the Supreme Court.

John MacArthur is a pastor in California. He is famous among some Christian networks, and he became more famous among lawyers during the COVID. Public health officials called for all citizens to wear face masks and avoid large crowds in buildings. MacArthur and his people pushed back and said, “No government is going to tell us when and how to worship.” Three years ago, they took their complaint to the Supreme Court and won.

I question the legal basis of the Court’s ruling, but I am not a lawyer. I am a preacher, a pastor, and a theologian. I question the theological basis of Mr. MacArthur’s case; I question the biblical basis of his appeal; I question the spiritual rationale of his argument. It is our calling to care for the city in which we live. Christians must be the first to follow all health and safety precautions. Followers of Jesus need to lay aside our right to worship when and how we please in order to protect the life and health of our neighbors.

Gerald Groff was a postman in Holtwood, Pennsylvania, on the banks of the Susquehanna River, just north of the state line. He is a Christian. He seeks to honor the Lord’s Day. He doesn’t want to work on the Lord’s Day. When the U S Post Office began to schedule him on Sundays, he pushed back. He changed post offices. Still, he was scheduled, on Sundays, to deliver Amazon packages. He quit and filed a lawsuit. This week, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor.

I am not schooled in the law, but I am educated in the things of Christian living. Here is what I resist: workers who invoke the name of Jesus to shirk their work responsibilities and push them off on other workers. Because Mr. Groff refused to do his part, other workers were forced to work more than their share, and they quit! None of the postal carriers wanted to do the work, but the Christian was the only one given permission to refuse to work! The Supreme Court ruled in his favor this week: he does not have to work if he doesn’t want to.

In Colorado, Lori Smith owns and operates a web design business. She filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado which has a law that requires businesses to serve all people. Smith did not want to serve everybody; she wanted to discriminate against queer people. “I am a Christian,” I watched her say in a TV interview (and here I paraphrase): “Making something that requires my personal creativity is a violation of my free speech and my Christian convictions.”

Smith lost at the local level and lost again in the federal appeals court. But this week, is an astounding ruling by this Supreme Court, she was given license to discriminate against other citizens simply because she does not like something about them. This Christian businesswoman won her right to refuse to help a customer who needed a service.

In her case, the people she refused to serve were, she said, a gay couple who had requested a marriage web site. In the name of Jesus, she claimed she turned down a common service to her neighbors in Colorado Spring simply because they were gay. After the ruling came down, it was discovered that this Christian woman had fabricated the entire work request; the man she named as the one requesting the service was himself a web-designer, was straight, and has been married for 15 years. He denied ever requesting anything.

These three Christian people—the preacher in California, the postman in Pennsylvania, and the web designer in Colorado—have taken the stage to demonstrate what it means to be a Christian in America today.

Here is what they say: being a Christian today means to defy public health protocols; being a Christian today means to shirk your share of the work; and being a Christian today means denying the dignity of citizens and neighbors.

The witness of these three people, spread over every newspaper in the United Sates this week and last year, has shaped more minds than all other Christian advertising of any kind! These three people—the preacher, the postman, and the designer—have given your neighbors a very clear image of what passes for a Christian today: ignore public health protocols, refuse to do your share of the work, and put a sign on your business announcing, WE DO NOT SERVE GAYS.

No wonder people are leaving the church! No wonder thousands of people are quitting Christianity! No wonder millions of people have disaffiliated. Today, less that half of the population of the United States claim affiliation with any house of worship.

This is why! People like the preacher from California, the postman from Pennsylvania, and the designer from Colorado—loudly claiming their connection to Jesus—have shaped the public image of what it means to follow Jesus today: ignore public health, quit your job, denigrate your neighbor.