CONVICTIONS

At the outbreak of the Civil War, a Tennessee cotton-planter could not decide which cause to support, the North or the South. He had friends on both sides, so he decided to be absolutely neutral. He wore a gray jacket and blue trousers, thereby dressing for both the Confederacy and the Union.

One day this man was caught in the middle of a skirmish between the two armies. He stood up and shouted that he was neutral in this fight and expected to be allowed to leave the field before the battle closed in on him. But Union sharpshooters, seeing the gray jacket, riddled it with bullets. And Confederate marksmen, seeing the blue pants, filled them with lead.

The point is, you cannot serve two masters (Matt. 6:24).255

“In religion, the things about which men agree are apt to be the things that are least worth holding; the really important things are the things about which men will fight.” (J. G. Machen, Christianity and Liberalism [Grand Rapids: Wm. Eerdmans, 1923], p. 2).256

George Norris, a Senator from Nebraska, after making a very unpopular decision in the view of his constituents, stated: “I would rather lie in the silent grave, remembered by both friends and enemies as one who remained true to his faith and who never faltered in what he believed to be his duty, than to still live, old and aged, lacking the confidence of both factions.” (Cited in John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage [New York: Harper & Row, 1983, Commemorative], pp. 161–2.)257