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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Thursday, July 23, 2009 8:45 PM CDT
Clergy Views: Church should be a powerful champion

By JACK WOODS, PASTOR, Humboldt United Methodist Church

The universe is packed with power. And, what is man that we have more power than we ever expected. And, to the world’s detriment, we too often see power as an end instead of a means. And this more often than not leads to corruption and evil.

Avoiding power, however, cannot be avoided or it leads to doing nothing. Both Ghandi and Stalin used power but their goals were entirely different.

So, too, the church and Christians must be in the thick of the battle and they must exercise power at the point where the moral and human decisions are being made.

This does not imply that the church must get into politics or become simply another pressure group. It does imply the church should be a powerful champion for all human rights, and a mighty defender of every human’s dignity.

Faith in God is the source of a tremendous power. There is more than human power making for righteousness, and gives dignity to every human life.

It is a power no tyrant or terrorist can defeat. At the end of the Second World War, Sir Winston Churchill wrote of Hitler: “(Hitler) sees with chagrin and amazement that our defeats are but stepping stones to victory and that his victories are only the stepping stones to ruin.”

In 1957 Methodist Bishop Gerald Kennedy wrote, “We cannot live without power. To lift the fallen takes power; to protect the innocent demands police power; to defend the nation requires military power. But, the one man in history who could have been trusted with any kind of power made perfectly clear that power belongs to God and can be used only under His control.

“Whenever we forget that, our victories lead to an ultimate defeat; but when we remember, even our defeats will lead us to the ultimate victory.”

“For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.”

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just watching wrote on Jul 27, 2009 1:16 PM:

" "yea though i walk through the valley of death i shall fear no evil." "