The Pastor’s Piece – October 16, 2022
The Pastor’s Piece
FCFI
October 16, 2022
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Not long ago I had a meeting in our church parking lot with the editor of this newspaper, Dan
Stevens. He’s a likable chap, (although he can get a little intense around deadline time). We met
in the parking lot because he had a volume of books to give me called The Interpreter’s Bible – A
Commentary in Twelve Volumes, published by Abingdon Press. It has a total of 36 contributing
editors from various prominent universities and seminaries from the era of time when the books
were published. The thing about the Bible is that it never gets old, because God never gets old
and He, along with His Word, never changes. By the looks of the different colors of the volumes
of the books I received, I’m assuming they came in sets of four over a period of time. The first
volume was copyrighted in 1952, the last in 1959 (the year I was born). If my conversation with
Dan serves me correctly, these were his mother’s treasured books and she asked him to find a
good home for them. Being a pastor (and a religious column writer for this publication for the
past 16 years), Dan thought of me. I’m honored that he did. Many times, I find these older
publications more beneficial in my research studies than the more modern ones. I guess this is
my way of publicly thanking Dan and his mom for the books. I’ve already benefited from them in
my studies and I hope, as a result, my “constituency” has too.
Speaking of which, (my constituency that is) this column is also published in its entirety or in a
shorter form in as many as four different publications. Recently, I received this notification from
one of them: “Kevin We have been contemplating and now have decided to discontinue
publishing your column … Thank you for the years you contributed.”
Maybe I should preface these remarks by saying that a few months ago I received an email
from the editor expressing some concern that “some” people had threatened to cancel their
subscription over the content of my column. Which is odd, because I write an opinion piece. I
was always taught that opinions aren’t necessarily right or wrong – they’re opinions. I was under
the impression that in a free thinking society, there would be tolerance for someone whose
opinion differed from mine. By means of observation, I don’t see a lot of opinion pieces like mine
in any non-religious publications. I see it as an opportunity given to me by God and with that
opportunity comes a responsibility on my part to be true to His Word in my correspondence. I
get that a lot of people aren’t going to agree with what I write about. What I don’t get is the
intolerance of those who disagree. Rather than be challenged in their thinking and open to
debate, their solution is to shut me up and cancel my column. I know this isn’t unique to me nor
is it anything new. The cancel culture is at work everywhere and has been, really, since the
beginning of time.
The first response from most people when I tell them of the cancellation is something along the
lines of: “You’d think in the conservative area in which we live, people would agree with what
you write.” Seriously, 99.9% of the feedback I receive is in agreement. Occasionally, I receive a
letter or a phone call from someone who disagrees and wants to talk about it. I respect that. But,
if I may say so, it seems rather cowardly for someone who disagrees, to express their
intolerance to a third party editor, who in turn sends a one sentence letter, terminating a
relationship that began several years ago, without even the opportunity to say good-bye to my
faithful readers. Although I only get to meet a handful of those who read my columns, I consider
each one a friend. You’ve paid for this subscription (or someone close to you has paid for it and
handed it down to you). I respect that and so should your editor. It’s not about what he or she
thinks is an appropriate or inappropriate opinion – or should I say, it shouldn’t be about their
opinion, but in this day, there’s only one opinion that matters and that is whatever the Bible says,
must be deleted from public discussion.
As you can tell, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t bummed about being canceled by that other
publication. This was a labor of love to them, you could say, as I received no compensation for
this work, just opportunity.
The following is a short quip from my sermon notes that I was working on the day I got the
notice. I find it interesting how appropriate they were for that exact moment in time:
“We live in very evil days. It seems all you hear about are things that are in conflict with our
Christian worldview. As Christians living in a non-Christian culture, we are considered
“radicals.” Of course, being called a radical for the right reasons is a compliment. Everybody has
to be known for something, do you want to be just another face in the crowd who believed
everything anyone ever told you without analyzing it to see if truth can be found in what is said?
Critical thinking, discernment, and understanding are in short supply these days. If secularism
won’t do any of the above, then it’s up to Christians to carry on that course. One of the gifts of
the Holy Spirit is discernment. God expects it of us – in every aspect of life.
We live in a day where many anti-Christ’s flex their arms as if to cause Christians to be afraid –
and many Christians are afraid – afraid of the end times, afraid of the government, afraid of
health issues, even afraid of dying. We’re not supposed to be. In the words of Jesus from
Matthew 24:6: “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled.”
We need to be reminded that God will win this cosmic battle. There is no power on earth or in
the universe that can overpower and defeat the Church. Believe me, they’ve tried over the
centuries, but the Church still stands and will stand until Christ returns. Jesus said: “The gates of
Hell shall not prevail against (My Church),” (Matt 16:18).
We must always remember that the true Gospel will always win. It might not seem to be winning
the day all the time, but perhaps that is by design. Perhaps God allows others a bit of success
while those of us seeking the undiluted Gospel seem to be overshadowed at times. It might be
by design in order to cause us to “Fix our eyes on Jesus the Author and Perfecter of our faith”
… because … “without faith it’s impossible to please God.”
God’s best to you always.
(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin)