A church in Shelbyville, Kentucky, has made the news. Unsurprisingly, the reason for the amplification of their message is controversy. The news-making church encourages their members to go to the public library, check out books that introduce children to sexual immorality, and never return the books. 

Last week, our church secretary fielded the phone call of a woman in Madison, Indiana (a full hour’s drive away). This woman was outraged. She believed, because the controversial church includes “Reformation” in its name, that it must be the Lutheran church in Shelbyville. “It’s not us,” our secretary insisted. “We don’t approve of stealing.” It took a few minutes to convince the caller. Eventually, the caller apologized. All is forgiven, of course. Reconciliation is our mission and mandate (Colossians 1:15-20).

I understand the anger. I also understand how anger is currency in the digital media space.

If I post on Facebook, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” or “Jesus said that where God joins one man and one woman together in marriage, let not man separate (Matthew 19:4-6),” I will get about a dozen likes and one or two comments of “Amen.” The social media algorithm will sweep these directly quoted words of God into the dustbin of forgotten posts by sundown.

If I say or do something sufficiently controversial, however, social media engagement will expand exponentially. I may even make the news. Some of that engagement will be negative. That is not a bug, but a feature. I will be able to cherry pick the negative engagement to expose the most foolish responses. Negative engagement will end up driving more loyalty from those who agree with me.

I understand this economy. And yet, still, I choose to return my library books.

The offending church has insisted that their library schema is not theft but civil disobedience. In defense of this claim, they point to local statutes that would punish their actions with fines rather than more severe penalties. I have watched this church’s community engagement for years. They do not approve of civil statutes on abortion; they define murder more broadly than the state. They do not approve of civil statutes on marriage. One of their pastors does not even approve of Abraham Lincoln’s winning the Civil War, and Lincoln has pretty good poll numbers here in his birth state! Why, regarding library property, does the state definition of theft matter? What should truly matter to men of the cloth is what Jesus teaches about life-ending, about marriage, and about the returning of library books (yes, that is what we are debating in America today when we let the currency of our conversation be what angers us).

Martin Luther’s Small Catechism explains the Commandment against stealing: “We should fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbor’s money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income.” Luther followed a centuries-old church tradition of seeing both a positive and negative side of the Commandments. It breaks the commandment against murder not only to hurt our neighbor’s body; I also fall short if I fail to act as the Good Samaritan and do not help an ailing neighbor left on the side of the road. We ought not take what is not ours. We ought to help our neighbor keep what is his. As a Christian, where I interact with the library, I am responsible for helping protect public possessions.

These teachings are not exclusive to Lutheran churches. They are rooted in Jesus’ teachings, not least, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus commands that I love my neighbor as myself (Matthew 7:12; Mark 12:31; Leviticus 19:9-18). Shelby County, Kentucky, ought not require by civil law, therefore, that I fix my neighbor’s adjoining fence. Civil law must limit itself. Christians are called to a higher law. James calls this “the law of liberty” (James 1:25), a way of living which proceeds from grace and aims for sincere love.

I tell you, the offending church knows all this. Why have they encouraged the loss of public property? They have lost something more valuable than library books. They have lost sufficient hope that the path of grace towards neighbors is an effective tactic in our world today. 

I must agree that on its own, the world does not reward the one who acts with grace. Nevertheless, I believe the Lord still intervenes in this world. He turns evil to good (Genesis 50:15-21). 

He has commanded His churches to proceed in this faith. We get to be a part of this great, cosmic reversal (Luke 3:5). In instruction to the earliest churches, Jesus’ apostles told us to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink” (12:20). If your library has purchased bad books, donate good books. 

Donating good books will not get you press. I am not speculating. I know it to be the case. Over the summer, our congregation donated several boxes of books to a local nursing home that expressed a need for fresh reading materials. We sent diapers to our local crisis pregnancy center. We helped a family whose home was destroyed in a storm. Our youth group helped produce braille devotion books for the blind. This doesn’t make the news because it is not news. We are not the only congregation doing things like this in Jesus’ name. There is a great cloud of witnesses who keep encouraging people to be gracious to every neighbor, including those acting like enemies (Hebrews 12:1-3).

Even without press amplification, I believe these actions have impact. Indeed, it takes belief to hope in that impact. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen” (Hebrews 11:1). I do not see all the impact I want to see. What did Jesus see when they nailed Him to the cross? What did Peter and Paul see when they submitted to governments that would kill them, ever praying for the Lord to bless those governments (1 Peter 2:13-17)? 

The Christian insistence to be gracious to our neighbor has a baseline at obeying state regulations, including the payment of library fines (Romans 13:1-10). Well beyond that baseline, Christians learn that they can bear crosses, an instrument designed by the ancient Roman state to terrorize those it conquered. Jesus taught, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). We often soften this claim as if “my cross to bear” might be an overbearing aunt, TPS reports at work, or indigestion. First-century Jews heard “cross” and thought of a government ready to inflict much worse than library fines.

I am confident that if the fellow Christians at the controversy-coveting congregation were to read this response, they would say the real issue here is the bad books. I am not saying there are not bad books in libraries. I am saying how we respond to evil – wherever we find it – matters. When the Apostle Paul was in Athens, “his spirit was provoked” by all the idols he saw (Acts 17:16). It is good to be provoked when confronted with evil. The provocation shows a healthy conscience. What did Paul do in his moment of provocation? He reasoned with the idolators. He reasoned with them in synagogues. He reasoned with them in the marketplaces. Paul believed God’s Word would work. I believe it still works.

But have you tried reasoning with people today? We do not live in the city of Socrates. We are convinced the differences among us are so fixed, so broad, so pernicious that talking about it is like spitting into a hurricane.

And yet, the differences among Americans are not actually broader than the differences between first-century Jews and Gentiles. Jews and Gentiles could not sit at the same table to share a meal (Galatians 2:12-14). War between them was always on the table (Acts 6:36-37). Whatever issue you may see dividing fellow Americans today, it was at least as divisive then. The first-century church had the tools to overcome those conflicts (Ephesians 2:11-17). Preaching peace and practicing mercy worked.

Why do we think things are worse today? Because controversy makes the news, and then everyone cherry-picks the worst responses. We can do our part to focus on something seemingly radical to news-watchers, but boringly normal to those of us keeping to Biblical values. It is what Daniel did among the Babylonians who ravaged Jerusalem (Daniel 1), what Jesus did when threatened with crucifixion (1 Timothy 6:13-14)—it is just plain old civil obedience.