“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance
will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will
perish.” Esther 4:14
“For everything there is a season and a time for every matter
under heaven . . . a time to tear, and a time to sew, a time to keep silence,
and a time to speak.” Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7.
In moments of crisis and stress, the call often goes out for
Christians publicly to take a stand about the issue, even if that stand is as
simple as a social media posting indicating support or opposition. Obviously,
the greatest portion of anger is directed towards those who chose to speak out
in an inappropriate way, those who, by their word choice or basic position
place themselves outside what is considered moral behavior and opinon. Yet these
are not alone in incurring the wrath of those of us who see this or that as the
defining moment when a prophetic call is needed. There are times when we
condemn the absence of a statement as complicity with the evil of the day with
nearly as much passion as we do those who speak wrongly.
Are there times when silence in the presence of evil is evil
itself? Certainly. There are moments when silence
is acquiescence. When faced with a grave injustice it is quite possible that we
choose to say or to do nothing because we approve of the sin we see. We can think of the German Christians, saying nothing as their Jewish neighbors disappeared, one by one. If we are
greedy ourselves, we may refuse to condemn those who exploit others for
financial gain. If we are gossips, we may turn a blind eye towards the slander done
by others. If we indulge in pornography, we are unlikely to condemn it practice
in others. If we carry hatred in our hearts towards another branch of Father
Adam’s family tree, we may well find reasons to avoid comment when racial
injustice stares us in the face.
Are there times when such a silence, though not malicious,
is still the sign of a hard heart, apathetic to the plight of others? By all
means. Fiddling while our own Rome burns, we can’t be bothered by the
misfortune affecting other people. We in the West with our ample refrigerators and
even more ample waistlines shake our heads about the starving peoples of the world,
and then head back to our gluttony. We see the suffering of the persecuted
church, and then think only to thank God that we’re American. We may dislike
the idea of abortion, but we can’t be bothered to rock the boat by saying so
publicly. We who are white see the lack of opportunities and hostility
endured by ethnic minorities, stoop only offer a prayer that Jesus would come
soon, but then go back to our trust funds and friendly policemen.
For many who have raised their voices in protest about a social
or moral problem, this is where the story ends. We look with disdain at those who
do not take the stand we do or, perhaps, who do so in a different way. When we
hear their silence, we can see no alternative but that either acquiescence or
apathy rules the hearts of our taciturn neighbors. Is this so? Rarely do we ask
ourselves if there might be more going on in our brother’s or sister’s souls
than what we will allow for them.
There is another reason for silence, although it is rather
less dramatic than the other options. It is a reason which even those who speak
boldly concerning situation “A” might find appealing when it comes to situation
“B.” It is the silence born of prudence. It is the silence we share when we
decide that, whatever the merits of the crisis at hand, speaking out at this
moment would not be wise. It may be as private as dealing with an unbelieving
coworker involved in some obvious sin and asking ourselves whether the more
constructive approach is confronting or ignoring. It may be as public as supporting
a political party for the sake of one part of their platform even though we
know full well that this means implicitly supporting another part of their
agenda which makes our conscience squirm.
Perhaps it is a situation which we think all Christians
should avoid addressing publicly. Perhaps it is one where we think that only
we ourselves should stand back. We may be glad that the discussion is going on,
and that others are speaking up. Yet we still may decide, at times, that we are
not pleased with the way it is progressing and that our own particular contribution
will not be constructive, for one reason or another. Any of us may imagine a
moment, and more likely we have experienced a moment when we, too, have
decided, for whatever reasons, that godly wisdom entails silence in the face of
sin.
This will be of small comfort to those who have concluded
that this moment or this crisis is the time to speak. What is more, we may be
right. The moment we see today or tomorrow might well be one of those times
when it is irresponsible of any Christian to refuse to let their voices be
heard. It might be that to stay silent now makes us culpable of accommodating
sin. Yet, when we say that there is no moral option other than the one we have
chosen, we must be on our guard that we have not limited wisdom to what we can
imagine in our finite and fallen minds.
The combination of life’s complexity and human frailty
entails that there will be disagreements in this life. We will not all agree on
all issues. Even if we do agree on the goal, we will not all agree on the best
course of action towards that goal. For some this will mean deeds, while, for
others it will mean words. For others still it will mean silence. Before we
start accusing our brothers and sisters in Christ of sins of omission, we must ask
whether it is us who have left something undone which we ought to have done.
Have we gone to them with a humble spirit and asked them if their silence has
some purpose we have not considered? Let us make manifest grace to one another
by assuming that our fellow members of the Bride of Christ are not acting according
to our worst imaginings of their silence until forced to do so by their words.
Let us do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
