By Dr. John Killian, pastor of Maytown Baptist Church and the former president of the Alabama Baptist State Convention
Remember the classic WWII movie about the persistent British colonel who demanded that the Japanese POW Camp Commandant adhere to the rules of the Geneva Convention prohibiting the torture of officers? The Japanese Commandant ended up giving in to the colonel’s consistent stand.
It’s a story about principle, about standing for the rule of law, and about enemies respecting that resolve. But there’s a painful twist. After winning over the Japanese Commandant, British POWs (the colonel’s men), work to construct a bridge over the River Kwai, which will be used to bring war materials to the Japanese Army. Perhaps unknowingly, perhaps after a series of excuses, the colonel loses sight of the bigger picture: the Japanese Army is the sworn enemy of Great Britain and the Colonel is duty-bound to defend his country.
Even as he champions the rule of law before the Japanese Commandant, the British colonel is violating the very principle he claims to promote as he builds the bridge to his nation’s demise. At the end of the movie, after fighting his American allies’ attempt to destroy the bridge, he comes to his senses, cries “what have I done?” and detonates the bridge.
So, keep building the bridge Christian lawyers and judges. Keep working in the name of “justice” to ensure the rule of the sort of law that places helpless children who need a father and a mother in the homes of two homosexuals and force custody decisions in favor of homosexuals. Work to advance the immoral sexual education of our school children! Approve that false definition of “equality” that ousts those “bigots” who believe that homosexuality is sinful and harmful for an individual’s body and soul, from their businesses, their ministries, and their public offices! Substitute the Constitution’s supremacy for the supremacy of federal judges! And, see to it that the moral law of God never again invades the territory of our great American legal system!
Build the bridge to the destruction of all you claim to hold dear and on the brink of eternity – with American society in shreds, souls that don’t know Christ dying in sin, and a church devoid of relevance in the public square – perhaps you’ll still have time to cry, “what have I done?”
Or, just let go of your Bible chains! You have nothing to lose but your soul.
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/09/judges_and_lawyers_are_buildin.html#incart_river_index