A young Christian wrote this first-rate article. For a variety of reasons, but primarily because she does not want to get into anymore difficulties with certain members of her Christian Reformed Church, she did not want to sign it. Quite a few people were upset about Agnes Hamstra taking such a positive stand and one local CRC minister even had the audacity to blast Agnes from the pulpit. Such is the state of the CRC!
Tuesday, December 23, 1969. Our breathing takes visible shape as it is released into the bitter frostiness of the winter air. The lights of the plaza disturb the velvet curtain of the evening. Last-minute Christmas shoppers, clad in an over-abundance of nervous impatience, elbow their way from store to store. The time-worn strains of “Silent Night” vie with the medley of voices, the crunch of tire against snow-frozen pavement and the strident honking of car horns. The night is cold and it is unbeautiful here.
Sitting across from IS-year-old Agnes Hamstra in the restaurant, I find myself asking her to tell me what has been happening lately. And so, over a mug of steaming hot coffee she begins to talk.
At that time, Agnes was employed as an aide at the New Mount Sinai Hospital. Her job was to clean, sterilize and prepare trays of surgical instruments. Paid a little over 60 dollars a week, she had been working there since September 2. Tomorrow, the day before Christmas, is to be her last workday in the New Mount Sinai Hospital.
There is no room for her there. She has refused to join or pay dues to the Building Service Employees’ International Union as is allegedly required under a collective agreement between the Union and the Hospital.
Several weeks ago, along with other recent employees, she had been summoned to a room in the hospital. One by one each person was called over to the union official, sitting at a little table. The union man said little. Each employee signed some papers and left; each one, that is, but Agnes. When her tum came, she asked what the name of the union was. Startled, somewhat, the agent muttered the name. When she asked him to repeat it a little more distinctly, his voice rose in volume and he seemed offended. “Sign here,” he growled, and pointed to a line. Agnes was nervous but there was no uncertainty as she said, “I’d like to see some information about the union before I pledge my support.”
The man told her that if she’d just sign on the dotted line, a constitution would be mailed to her within a few weeks. She was adamant in her refusal to sign anything without first being able to judge whether or not she could do so, as a Christian. The union man was angry and he told her to ask the personnel office about it. As she walked through the doorway, he threatened: “I’ll take this as a refusal and you know what that means!” Agnes hesitated in the doorway and answered “No…it’s not a refusal to sign—it’s merely a request to know what I’ll be getting into if I sign.”
“All the rest of them follow like sheep.”
The personnel officer was also surprised at her hesitation to go along with standard procedure. “Ever since the union has been here…you’re the first person who has stopped long enough to ask any questions about it. All the rest of them follow like sheep. Everyone else just signs because it’s less trouble that way.”
However, even the personnel officer wouldn’t give her much information. All he gave her was the name of the union and the advice that she sign because, said he, it’s not a bad union; it’s never given us any trouble; it’ll help you get more money. Magnanimously, he offered her two weeks time in which to think it over. “If you don’t sign then, we’ll have no choice but to fire you.”
A troupe of painted clowns are entering the restaurant and they begin to play a tune. I see five men with faces painted to disguise them. The drum begins its rat-a-tat-a-tat, the rhythm is lively, and the jokes are funny. “Good king Wenceslaus last looked out….”
Too many people today wear painted faces.
The brief interlude gives me a chance to look at Agnes. She’s kind of a different person. She stands apart. The clowns arc men, only they have painted their faces white and red. Too many people today wear painted faces. It’s difficult, sometimes, to tell what lies beneath the complicated disguises people rig up. Agnes stands apart because the only face she wears is her own. She’s one of the few totally genuine people I know.
Her shoulder length brown hair seems perpetually wind blown. Her freckled face creases, often, into lines of laughing enjoyment. For one so young, her eyes have seen deeply into people. She dislikes phoniness; her response is, as a rule, genuine. She’s a relatively uncomplicated young girl who finds many of life’s needless complexities bewildering and sad. She cares about others. She doesn’t just say she cares—she acts out her caring.
What can I tell you to make you understand? How can one catch the rarity of a special personality in a paragraph of only words and let others feel? It’s impossible. ·Words are elusive things; all that I want to convey, the wind has taken on a whisper of laughter.
The clowns leave the restaurant and our coffee is getting cold. Agnes talks to me about herself. She’s not afraid, as some people are, lo reveal herself. What makes Agnes so distinct. I guess, is her sense of responding to God. She doesn’t think of her religion as a burden; she knows better. She’s the kind of person who lives religion joyfully because she knows Jesus.
I asked her if she was afraid or worried. After all, getting fired is not a pleasant experience. She looked at me in askance and then she smiled. Fear and worry hadn’t even crossed her mind. “What was the matter with me, anyway?” her eyes seemed to ask.
I started to think, as she was talking. Here we have one young girl, fresh out of Christian High school, ready to face life. She goes to work in a Jewish Hospital and works hard. She’s a happy person and conscientious. When it is time to stand up and face an issue which is important to her, she stands. She refuses to sign a BSEIU Local 204 union dues deduction card without at least receiving information about that union so that she can make a responsible choice. The fact that she wants to examine and decide, the very fact that she evidences a certain responsibility is treated first with angry impatience by the union representative, then with startled respect by the hospital representative and, finally, with a complete lack of understanding by both. The union threatens, the employer threatens, and Agnes keeps asking only for information. She gets very little of that.
Probably, both officials represent the opinion of the vast majority. “We’ll acknowledge that she’s different, we’ll even display a grudging respect for her courage—and then, once we’ve explained to her that refusal means loss of income, whereas blind obedience promises nothing but the ‘good things’ of life—money, time off, peace—then, she’ll sign. Youth has its foibles; it feels a need to rebel a little; we know about that and we can ‘understand’ that need; we’ll just give her time to think it over.” Agnes refused to sign. Her time-to-think was extended beyond the allotted two weeks.
Sure of her stand, but unsure of how to go about it legally, she phoned the Committee for Justice and Liberty to see if they could help. “They’re trying to force me to support the union or be fired, Mr. Vandezande. I’ve decided not to support it if it doesn’t rest upon the strong foundation of the Word of God. What must I do to get my point across?”
“You’ve made the decision; write your thoughts down and mail the letter to the Union.”
The CJL Foundation loaned her an old copy of the BSETU Constitution and she read it. Agnes then wrote a letter to the union—a statement of faith.
I asked God to help me write this letter clearly so that you can understand. I ask Him daily to show me how He wants me to live in this, His world, how He wants me to work in it for Him. And in the Bible, God makes it plain that He has created me, just as He has created all mankind, to praise Him. first of all, to praise Him, sir, in every moment of living, including at my job.
But as I was reading the constitution of the union, it struck me that it is based on the false belief that man, not God, is the only one to serve. This spirit permeates the constitution through the way it blindly prostitutes work to the narrow goal of earning wages. I cannot worship this “god” you have made of man. Therefore I could not possibly become a member or even support such an organization. I feel that if I were to support it, I would be lying to myself, to others and to God.
Sir, I hope you can see how important this is to me. I am willing to pay the equivalent of union dues to a recognized charity. I am saddened and have lost a great deal of trust and respect for the so-called “democratic system” because you demand that I hypocritically scorn God by supporting the Building Service Employees’ International Union, Local No. 204, or be fired. In putting this dilemma before me, you are showing a complete disregard for The Canadian Bill of Rights which says so clearly that freedom of association and freedom of religion are the guaranteed civil rights of every Canadian. Laws that come out merely in the form of empty words with no action for a backbone, do little good, for they lead to a lack of freedom. I have turned to the Committee of Justice and Liberty to help and they have promised to do whatever they can.
Things began to move rapidly. People began to sit up sharply and take notice. This kid was for real. She wasn’t just pretending to take a stand; she was definitely standing.
At work, the people around her didn’t understand. They felt sorry for her and tried to drive home the point that she’d certainly lose her job if she didn’t knuckle under in response to the all-powerful system. “Why fight for such a stupid reason? The way you’re acting now, it’s not worth it—all you can do is lose!” Some of them, liking her, offered to pay her union dues for her. She refused this.
There is seldom room for those who stand.
Today, Tuesday, December 23, the hospital had sent someone to reason with her. He had been very kindly tolerant and had listened sympathetically. She wondered whether he had really understood. She wondered why he’d listened.
He seemed to be under the impression that somehow, someone was pushing her…was feeding her a line. “Are you sure this is your idea? Are you sure this is what you want?”
He pressed her to phone the Ontario Human Rights Commission. “They’ll tell you that your stand is unreasonable…” And he waited while she phoned. Agnes did not back down from her position.
Everyone at the Hospital was feeling a little uncomfortable, I suppose. But, did they really want to help her as much as they claimed they did? Or, was it perhaps a desperate wish to avoid unpleasantness…? Especially at Christmas, “the season to be jolly,” a little bit of conscience prick is the most unwelcome thing in the world. After all, nobody wants to discriminate against her, nobody wants to be unfair. If only she’ll sign!
We got up and paid our bill. Outside the air was crisp and clean. Stars twinkled in the blackness of the heavens. The snow was white and made a crunching noise under our boots. We sang a little and we laughed a lot. Agnes was happy. At the bus stop we said good-bye and Shalom.
“This kid was for real.”
The following day, Agnes was quietly dismissed. There was no room for her in the Hospital. There is seldom room for those who stand.
“GIRL FIRED CHRISTMAS EVE OVER UNION DUES.” “HOSPITAL SUPPLY AIDE FIRED CHRISTMAS EVE OVER UNION CHECK-OFF.” The newspapers picked up the story and exploited it to the fullest. The Globe and Mail reported on Christmas Day:
Miss Hamstra, a member of the Christian Reformed Church, lost her job because she refused to pay dues to the Building Service Employees’ International Union as required under the collective agreement between the union and the hospital.
She is one of a number of members of the Christian Reformed Church who have lost their jobs in Ontario because they refused to pay dues to unions that they believe to be materialistic organizations that do not have fealty to God as the principle under which they function.
Along with many others, I read the reports in the Globe, the Star and the Telegram. I guess, because I know Agnes, I read them differently. The whole thing makes me feel humbly thankful to the Lord. I Corinthians 12 talks about the gifts which God has given to his people—to his Church.
Now I want to give you some further information in some spiritual matters. You have not forgotten that you were gentiles, following dumb idols just as your impulses led you. Now I want you to understand, as Christians, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God could call Jesus accursed and no one could say that he is the Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.
Men have different gifts, but it is the same Spirit who gives them. There are different ways of serving God, but it is the same Lord who is served. God works through different men in different ways, but it is the same God who achieves his purposes through them all. Each man is given his gift by the Spirit that he may use it for the common good.
One man’s gift by the Spirit is to speak with wisdom, another’s to speak with knowledge. The same Spirit gives to another mall faith, to another the ability to heal, to another the power to do great deeds. The same Spirit gives to another man the gift of preaching the Word of God, to another the ability to discriminate in spiritual matters, to another speech in different tongues and to yet another the power to interpret the tongues. Behind all these gifts is the operation of the same Spirit, who distributes to each individual man, as he wills.
As the human body, which has many parts, is a unity, and those parts, despite their multiplicity, constitute one single body, so it is with Christ.
But God has harmonized the whole body by giving importance of function to the parts which lack apparent importance, that the body should work together as a whole with all the members in sympathetic relationship with one another. So it happens that if one member suffers all the other members suffer with it, and if one member is honored all the members share a common joy.
Now you are together the body of Christ, and individually you are members of him.
The people in my local church were talking about Agnes. Most of their comments were very disturbing to me. If anyone should have understood, it would be the individual who is a part of that living wholeness which makes lip the One Body.
Many people were angry. “Imagine a little punk kid like that standing up and giving the Christian Reformed Church a ‘bad’ name! It’s ridiculous. She was only working for a year anyway, to save money for college; why did she have to make such a fuss? And, she knew about the union being there—it says so in the papers! She wouldn’t listen to all the good advice which people on all sides were giving her; she should have paid the union dues quietly and not have caused all this embarrassing publicity. It might have been different if it had been a grown man with a family…But this? Somebody probably told her to do it…It has nothing to do with the Christian Reformed Church but everyone will get the wrong idea now….”
All you people out there, all of you who may be reading this in anger, don’t you feel any shame? While you worry about preserving the image of the Christian Reformed Church in your community aren’t you overlooking the tremendously significant fact that 18-yearold Agnes Hamstra, member of the Christian Reformed Church, was standing up, as a part of that One Body of believers, and confessing, not the name of her local church first of all but of God Almighty! Be careful what you do! The Bible tells of many active witnesses for the Lord who were cast into prison for their stand; who were beaten and mocked and scorned. I wonder how many people thought they were overdoing the Christianity bit? I wonder how many times they were told they were being unreasonable? I wonder.
I wonder…Shalom.
Reprinted from THE GUIDE with permission.
Tuesday, December 23, 1969. Our breathing takes visible shape as it is released into the bitter frostiness of the winter air. The lights of the plaza disturb the velvet curtain of the evening. Last-minute Christmas shoppers, clad in an over-abundance of nervous impatience, elbow their way from store to store. The time-worn strains of “Silent Night” vie with the medley of voices, the crunch of tire against snow-frozen pavement and the strident honking of car horns. The night is cold and it is unbeautiful here.
Sitting across from IS-year-old Agnes Hamstra in the restaurant, I find myself asking her to tell me what has been happening lately. And so, over a mug of steaming hot coffee she begins to talk.
At that time, Agnes was employed as an aide at the New Mount Sinai Hospital. Her job was to clean, sterilize and prepare trays of surgical instruments. Paid a little over 60 dollars a week, she had been working there since September 2. Tomorrow, the day before Christmas, is to be her last workday in the New Mount Sinai Hospital.
There is no room for her there. She has refused to join or pay dues to the Building Service Employees’ International Union as is allegedly required under a collective agreement between the Union and the Hospital.
Several weeks ago, along with other recent employees, she had been summoned to a room in the hospital. One by one each person was called over to the union official, sitting at a little table. The union man said little. Each employee signed some papers and left; each one, that is, but Agnes. When her tum came, she asked what the name of the union was. Startled, somewhat, the agent muttered the name. When she asked him to repeat it a little more distinctly, his voice rose in volume and he seemed offended. “Sign here,” he growled, and pointed to a line. Agnes was nervous but there was no uncertainty as she said, “I’d like to see some information about the union before I pledge my support.”
The man told her that if she’d just sign on the dotted line, a constitution would be mailed to her within a few weeks. She was adamant in her refusal to sign anything without first being able to judge whether or not she could do so, as a Christian. The union man was angry and he told her to ask the personnel office about it. As she walked through the doorway, he threatened: “I’ll take this as a refusal and you know what that means!” Agnes hesitated in the doorway and answered “No…it’s not a refusal to sign—it’s merely a request to know what I’ll be getting into if I sign.”
“All the rest of them follow like sheep.”
The personnel officer was also surprised at her hesitation to go along with standard procedure. “Ever since the union has been here…you’re the first person who has stopped long enough to ask any questions about it. All the rest of them follow like sheep. Everyone else just signs because it’s less trouble that way.”
However, even the personnel officer wouldn’t give her much information. All he gave her was the name of the union and the advice that she sign because, said he, it’s not a bad union; it’s never given us any trouble; it’ll help you get more money. Magnanimously, he offered her two weeks time in which to think it over. “If you don’t sign then, we’ll have no choice but to fire you.”
A troupe of painted clowns are entering the restaurant and they begin to play a tune. I see five men with faces painted to disguise them. The drum begins its rat-a-tat-a-tat, the rhythm is lively, and the jokes are funny. “Good king Wenceslaus last looked out….”
Too many people today wear painted faces.
The brief interlude gives me a chance to look at Agnes. She’s kind of a different person. She stands apart. The clowns arc men, only they have painted their faces white and red. Too many people today wear painted faces. It’s difficult, sometimes, to tell what lies beneath the complicated disguises people rig up. Agnes stands apart because the only face she wears is her own. She’s one of the few totally genuine people I know.
Her shoulder length brown hair seems perpetually wind blown. Her freckled face creases, often, into lines of laughing enjoyment. For one so young, her eyes have seen deeply into people. She dislikes phoniness; her response is, as a rule, genuine. She’s a relatively uncomplicated young girl who finds many of life’s needless complexities bewildering and sad. She cares about others. She doesn’t just say she cares—she acts out her caring.
What can I tell you to make you understand? How can one catch the rarity of a special personality in a paragraph of only words and let others feel? It’s impossible. ·Words are elusive things; all that I want to convey, the wind has taken on a whisper of laughter.
The clowns leave the restaurant and our coffee is getting cold. Agnes talks to me about herself. She’s not afraid, as some people are, lo reveal herself. What makes Agnes so distinct. I guess, is her sense of responding to God. She doesn’t think of her religion as a burden; she knows better. She’s the kind of person who lives religion joyfully because she knows Jesus.
I asked her if she was afraid or worried. After all, getting fired is not a pleasant experience. She looked at me in askance and then she smiled. Fear and worry hadn’t even crossed her mind. “What was the matter with me, anyway?” her eyes seemed to ask.
I started to think, as she was talking. Here we have one young girl, fresh out of Christian High school, ready to face life. She goes to work in a Jewish Hospital and works hard. She’s a happy person and conscientious. When it is time to stand up and face an issue which is important to her, she stands. She refuses to sign a BSEIU Local 204 union dues deduction card without at least receiving information about that union so that she can make a responsible choice. The fact that she wants to examine and decide, the very fact that she evidences a certain responsibility is treated first with angry impatience by the union representative, then with startled respect by the hospital representative and, finally, with a complete lack of understanding by both. The union threatens, the employer threatens, and Agnes keeps asking only for information. She gets very little of that.
Probably, both officials represent the opinion of the vast majority. “We’ll acknowledge that she’s different, we’ll even display a grudging respect for her courage—and then, once we’ve explained to her that refusal means loss of income, whereas blind obedience promises nothing but the ‘good things’ of life—money, time off, peace—then, she’ll sign. Youth has its foibles; it feels a need to rebel a little; we know about that and we can ‘understand’ that need; we’ll just give her time to think it over.” Agnes refused to sign. Her time-to-think was extended beyond the allotted two weeks.
Sure of her stand, but unsure of how to go about it legally, she phoned the Committee for Justice and Liberty to see if they could help. “They’re trying to force me to support the union or be fired, Mr. Vandezande. I’ve decided not to support it if it doesn’t rest upon the strong foundation of the Word of God. What must I do to get my point across?”
“You’ve made the decision; write your thoughts down and mail the letter to the Union.”
The CJL Foundation loaned her an old copy of the BSETU Constitution and she read it. Agnes then wrote a letter to the union—a statement of faith.
I asked God to help me write this letter clearly so that you can understand. I ask Him daily to show me how He wants me to live in this, His world, how He wants me to work in it for Him. And in the Bible, God makes it plain that He has created me, just as He has created all mankind, to praise Him. first of all, to praise Him, sir, in every moment of living, including at my job.
But as I was reading the constitution of the union, it struck me that it is based on the false belief that man, not God, is the only one to serve. This spirit permeates the constitution through the way it blindly prostitutes work to the narrow goal of earning wages. I cannot worship this “god” you have made of man. Therefore I could not possibly become a member or even support such an organization. I feel that if I were to support it, I would be lying to myself, to others and to God.
Sir, I hope you can see how important this is to me. I am willing to pay the equivalent of union dues to a recognized charity. I am saddened and have lost a great deal of trust and respect for the so-called “democratic system” because you demand that I hypocritically scorn God by supporting the Building Service Employees’ International Union, Local No. 204, or be fired. In putting this dilemma before me, you are showing a complete disregard for The Canadian Bill of Rights which says so clearly that freedom of association and freedom of religion are the guaranteed civil rights of every Canadian. Laws that come out merely in the form of empty words with no action for a backbone, do little good, for they lead to a lack of freedom. I have turned to the Committee of Justice and Liberty to help and they have promised to do whatever they can.
Things began to move rapidly. People began to sit up sharply and take notice. This kid was for real. She wasn’t just pretending to take a stand; she was definitely standing.
At work, the people around her didn’t understand. They felt sorry for her and tried to drive home the point that she’d certainly lose her job if she didn’t knuckle under in response to the all-powerful system. “Why fight for such a stupid reason? The way you’re acting now, it’s not worth it—all you can do is lose!” Some of them, liking her, offered to pay her union dues for her. She refused this.
There is seldom room for those who stand.
Today, Tuesday, December 23, the hospital had sent someone to reason with her. He had been very kindly tolerant and had listened sympathetically. She wondered whether he had really understood. She wondered why he’d listened.
He seemed to be under the impression that somehow, someone was pushing her…was feeding her a line. “Are you sure this is your idea? Are you sure this is what you want?”
He pressed her to phone the Ontario Human Rights Commission. “They’ll tell you that your stand is unreasonable…” And he waited while she phoned. Agnes did not back down from her position.
Everyone at the Hospital was feeling a little uncomfortable, I suppose. But, did they really want to help her as much as they claimed they did? Or, was it perhaps a desperate wish to avoid unpleasantness…? Especially at Christmas, “the season to be jolly,” a little bit of conscience prick is the most unwelcome thing in the world. After all, nobody wants to discriminate against her, nobody wants to be unfair. If only she’ll sign!
We got up and paid our bill. Outside the air was crisp and clean. Stars twinkled in the blackness of the heavens. The snow was white and made a crunching noise under our boots. We sang a little and we laughed a lot. Agnes was happy. At the bus stop we said good-bye and Shalom.
“This kid was for real.”
The following day, Agnes was quietly dismissed. There was no room for her in the Hospital. There is seldom room for those who stand.
“GIRL FIRED CHRISTMAS EVE OVER UNION DUES.” “HOSPITAL SUPPLY AIDE FIRED CHRISTMAS EVE OVER UNION CHECK-OFF.” The newspapers picked up the story and exploited it to the fullest. The Globe and Mail reported on Christmas Day:
Miss Hamstra, a member of the Christian Reformed Church, lost her job because she refused to pay dues to the Building Service Employees’ International Union as required under the collective agreement between the union and the hospital.
She is one of a number of members of the Christian Reformed Church who have lost their jobs in Ontario because they refused to pay dues to unions that they believe to be materialistic organizations that do not have fealty to God as the principle under which they function.
Along with many others, I read the reports in the Globe, the Star and the Telegram. I guess, because I know Agnes, I read them differently. The whole thing makes me feel humbly thankful to the Lord. I Corinthians 12 talks about the gifts which God has given to his people—to his Church.
Now I want to give you some further information in some spiritual matters. You have not forgotten that you were gentiles, following dumb idols just as your impulses led you. Now I want you to understand, as Christians, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God could call Jesus accursed and no one could say that he is the Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.
Men have different gifts, but it is the same Spirit who gives them. There are different ways of serving God, but it is the same Lord who is served. God works through different men in different ways, but it is the same God who achieves his purposes through them all. Each man is given his gift by the Spirit that he may use it for the common good.
One man’s gift by the Spirit is to speak with wisdom, another’s to speak with knowledge. The same Spirit gives to another mall faith, to another the ability to heal, to another the power to do great deeds. The same Spirit gives to another man the gift of preaching the Word of God, to another the ability to discriminate in spiritual matters, to another speech in different tongues and to yet another the power to interpret the tongues. Behind all these gifts is the operation of the same Spirit, who distributes to each individual man, as he wills.
As the human body, which has many parts, is a unity, and those parts, despite their multiplicity, constitute one single body, so it is with Christ.
But God has harmonized the whole body by giving importance of function to the parts which lack apparent importance, that the body should work together as a whole with all the members in sympathetic relationship with one another. So it happens that if one member suffers all the other members suffer with it, and if one member is honored all the members share a common joy.
Now you are together the body of Christ, and individually you are members of him.
The people in my local church were talking about Agnes. Most of their comments were very disturbing to me. If anyone should have understood, it would be the individual who is a part of that living wholeness which makes lip the One Body.
Many people were angry. “Imagine a little punk kid like that standing up and giving the Christian Reformed Church a ‘bad’ name! It’s ridiculous. She was only working for a year anyway, to save money for college; why did she have to make such a fuss? And, she knew about the union being there—it says so in the papers! She wouldn’t listen to all the good advice which people on all sides were giving her; she should have paid the union dues quietly and not have caused all this embarrassing publicity. It might have been different if it had been a grown man with a family…But this? Somebody probably told her to do it…It has nothing to do with the Christian Reformed Church but everyone will get the wrong idea now….”
All you people out there, all of you who may be reading this in anger, don’t you feel any shame? While you worry about preserving the image of the Christian Reformed Church in your community aren’t you overlooking the tremendously significant fact that 18-yearold Agnes Hamstra, member of the Christian Reformed Church, was standing up, as a part of that One Body of believers, and confessing, not the name of her local church first of all but of God Almighty! Be careful what you do! The Bible tells of many active witnesses for the Lord who were cast into prison for their stand; who were beaten and mocked and scorned. I wonder how many people thought they were overdoing the Christianity bit? I wonder how many times they were told they were being unreasonable? I wonder.
I wonder…Shalom.
Reprinted from THE GUIDE with permission.