I’m remembering an incident some 15 or more years back which seems to have set the pattern for all the years (and politics) since.

President Obama’s health care plan had been passed by Congress and a lot of people were unhappy about it.

What stands out in my memory is how ugly some people were even while presumably occupying the high ground morally. (Let your mind dwell on that for a moment.)

As congressional leaders worked their way through the crowds surrounding the U.S. Capitol building–security and police were everywhere–curses were being spat in their direction by these champions of the unborn.

The gay congressman heard, “Fag!” yelled at him. The N-word was hurled at Congressman John Lewis, a hero of the Civil Rights movement if one ever existed. And we’re told that in the House of Representative itself, a congressman yelled out, “Baby killers!” to those voting for the health-care legislation.

I was in Springfield, Illinois, watching this on television from my hotel room in between worship services at one of our churches. The pastor and I were discussing the behavior of the demonstrators.

This reminded him of the time a deacon hit him in the face and “busted my tooth.”

I said, “I have to hear this story.”

The deacon, the pastor said, was not a young hothead. He was an old hothead. “Seventy years old,” said the pastor, “but he had never learned how to discipline his passions.”

“What was his passion?”

“Fundamentalism. He was an ultra-conservative and proud of it.”

“And you’re a liberal?”

“I am not. But he didn’t think I was conservative enough to suit him. He wanted me to be as mean-spirited in my sermons as he was in his personal life, to ‘pour salt in the wounds,’ as we say.”

The pastor told what the issue was that brought all this to a head. Suffice it to say it was an extremely minor point. The man was on a tirade. He was mad at a world he was convinced was going to perdition and looking for someone to blame.

The pastor just got in his line of fire that day.

That morning, a few minutes before the worship service, the deacon had accosted the preacher. When the brief encounter ended, the pastor turned away to head back to his desk. That’s when the old man doubled up his fist and hit him in the mouth.

“I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it. This deacon has just busted me in the mouth. I could feel bits of a tooth he’d just broken with my tongue.”

I expect most of us would think of filing assault charges against such an individual, regardless of his position in the church. Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians aside (I Corinthians 6:1ff), doing so could be justified as tough love. But this pastor was more Christlike than I would have been. He washed his mouth out, asked a couple of his friends to keep an eye on the offender during church, and preached his sermon that day.

“That was the last day he came to our church,” the preacher told me. “He knew he had done wrong and there’s no way he was going to submit to the authority of the other deacons or his pastor in disciplining him. So he disappeared.”

A few months later, the pastor was contacted by the two bodyguards of the pastor of a mega-church in the nearest large city. That deacon was now worshiping there. Apparently they had seen something to tip them off and were checking into the man’s background.

Churches employing bodyguards for the preacher is an indication of the sick world we live in.

That Saturday afternoon in Springfield, as the pastor and I were coming out of a restaurant, demonstrators on a street corner held up placards calling on motorists to “Honk, if you oppose Obama’s health care plan.”

President Obama had been a state senator across the street in the Illinois Capitol. When he ran for president, Obama and Joe Biden held a massive rally at this very intersection. So, it’s “the place to be,” I suppose.

It also happens to be across the street from the building housing the law offices of Abraham Lincoln and his friend Herndon. Historic, indeed.

As the wintry winds pelted us with icy raindrops, I teased one of the protestors, “If you folks don’t get out of this weather, you’re going to be needing health care!” He said, “In that case, I’ll pay for it myself.”

The man had a sense of humor. I think.

One wonders what takes place inside the mind of a person who decides to defend conservative values with mean-spirited tactics. In his defense of the unborn, he assails the decision-makers.

A congressman who survived the gauntlet Sunday afternoon and was the target of the curses, said to the media inside, “Do they think such behavior will make me change my vote?”

No. They didn’t think that at all. They were just doing what mobs do, feeding off one another’s ill will.

Contrast the deacon who, in his zeal for what he considers Christian values, busts his pastor in the mouth and the Capitol protestors who, wishing to secure the rights of the unborn, cursed the lawmakers with these words from Scripture:

And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;

Bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

And beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity;

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” (Colossians 3:12-15)

I can hear someone protest that this is a “lily-livered, cowardly” way to respond when the enemy is banging on your door, threatening everything and everyone you love.

As though there comes a time for Christians to act like the devil in our service for the Lord.

My own conclusion–for what it’s worth–is that not all who defend Christian values are Christian. Not everyone who is willing to fight for fundamental doctrines knows the Lord.

Some people just like to fight. And if it weren’t this cause, it would be something else.

God’s people must be able to recognize these dangerous advocates and to steer clear of them.

Those who are on Facebook see it all the time: people who are so “anti” they resort to the depths of ugliness and ridicule in their rants. Mostly, we ignore them. But once in a while I will respond, “If you would spend as much time praying for the president–as Scripture commands–as you do complaining about him, he might be a far better leader.”

I recall sitting in a living room watching a debate (of a sort) between the disciples of a guru and the parents of a group of teenagers who had been caught up in his movement. The parents were upset and a few were hostile. The two disciples were conservatively dressed (they could have been computer salesmen!) and on their best behavior. In between, on the floor, sat six or eight teens, listening to the arguments and watching their parents self-destruct in front of them.

I soon realized the teens were not following the fine points of the discussion. They did not know the scriptures being tossed back and forth, but they knew their parents were being ugly and unkind. These adolescents were being seduced by the suave manner of the guru’s representatives at the same time they were being repulsed by the mannerisms of the people in the room who loved them most.

Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies.

Father, help me never to be so caught up in any cause–even Thine!–that I am willing to forsake all that is holy in its defense. For Jesus’ sake.