Reading J. Oswald Sanders’ Spiritual Leadership has been a huge blessing. Consider this excerpt:
COMPROMISE
Can we waive a principle to reach agreement? Lowering standards is always a backward step, and compromise nearly always requires it.
The epic contest of Moses and Pharaoh is a classic example of the temptation to compromise. When Pharaoh realized that Moses meant to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt, he used cunning and threats to frustrate him. “Worship God if you will,” was his first overture, “but don’t leave Egypt to do it.” A modern equivalent would be “Religion is okay, but don’t be narrow about it. No need to let religion isolate you from the rest of the world.”
When that approach failed, Pharaoh tried something else: “If you must go out of Egypt to worship, don’t go far. Religion is fine, but there is no need to be fanatical about it. Stay as close to the world as you can.”
Yet a third attempt played on natural affection: “Let the men go and worship, and the women and children stay here. If you must break with the world, don’t force such a narrow lifestyle on everyone else in the family.”
Pharaoh’s last attempt was an appeal to greed: “Okay, go. But the flocks and herds stay. Don’t let your odd religious commitments get in the way of business and prosperity.”
With clear spiritual insight Moses cut through each evasion: “Not a hoof is to be left behind,” he said (Exodus 10:26). Moses passed with honors a great test of his leadership of God’s people.
I love the way Sanders turned the focus on to Pharaoh’s temptations toward Moses and away from the question of God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.
In unrelated news, Colorado passed a law making it illegal to discriminate against against someone based on lifestyles or perceptions, whatever that means. Colorado, recall, is the home of such evangelical power houses as Focus on the Family so it is pretty surprising that such a law passed. WorldNetDaily website [1], which is a fairly conservative and Christian leaning news service, quoted Colorado Family Action who quoted Cathryn Hazouri, executive director the ACLU, in her testimony as saying, “One may practice one’s religion in private; however, once a religious person comes into the public arena, there are limitations in how the expression of their religion impacts others.” Separation of church and everything apparently. This is not how the founding fathers envisioned it, I don’t believe.