With a loud cry the Council members covered their ears with their hands. Then they all rushed at him at once,
threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses left their cloaks in the care of a young man named Saul.
-Acts 7:57-58

Over the years, one of the most crucial concepts I have tried to demonstrate to my sons is the idea that it is not okay to allow someone to be mistreated if one is witness to it. In many ways, passively observing some injustice or trangression against another is comparable to participating directly. No? Well, perhaps the person who was wronged might say that it is absolutely as bad, if not worse. Many times, the person who watches and does nothing is the person that the victim remembers the most.

I often wonder if Stephen, the one who was murdered in the above scripture, saw Saul standing there, holding the coats of the active participants in the stoning. Obviously, Saul would have seen this summary execution and probably agreed--at least conceptually--with the ones who were doing it. Stephen, in that moment, would have no way of knowing that Saul would eventually become Paul, the most prolific and influential Christian of the first century. He had no idea that Saul, who watched him get bashed to death, would make the same claims to the world that Stephen was, now, being killed for. I wonder if Saul heard Stephen ask God to forgive the ones who were doing this horrible thing.

But most of all, I wonder if Paul, when faced with his own persecutory death, remembered back to the moment he held the coats and watched Stephen die.

I have to assume that Saul, at the time, was invested in his beliefs. He likely also disapproved of Stephen's behavior and his preaching of Jesus. He was Joe-establishment all the way...he was a company man...a willful cog in a massive religious machine. If they said Stephen was evil and wrong, well that was good enough for Saul. Saul believed Stephen was guilty.

Do you know Christians who act his way? Isn't it true that some of us feel that there are certain types of people that, well, are outside the normal rules of Christian engagement? Oh we don't say so in public and we certainly won't go on record with it, but it is true regardless. We can orate on forgiveness for hours on end, but how many of us would permit an abortion doctor to be stoned to death in front of us? Would we hold the coats of the faithful as they exact justice and take away God's right to manage his own affairs?

When the recent abortion doctor was murdered in a church, how many believers secretly said "Oh well, I guess he had it coming.", in their hearts? This is a problem.

Look, say what is right, sure. Preach holiness, yes. Warn of eternal judgement, fine. Speak kind counsel to your brothers when warranted, great. Expose darkness and give God all the credit, absolutely. But, whatever you do...and no matter how learned of the scriptures you become, do not be a coat-holder. Do not allow the mistreatment of others just because the crowd has found them distasteful. We need to have the courage to speak up and face down the surge of the crowd when we realize that they are becoming shrill and unreasonable; having abandoned God's purposes for the satisfaction of their own.

Saying and doing the right thing sometimes means rocking the "church-world" boat a little bit.