The story is troubling enough without the statistics painting an even more confusing picture. According to nearly every poll on the Terri Schiavo saga, between 65 and 80 percent of Americans feel the government has no business getting involved in this case. Fine. Now it gets gritty. Fully two-thirds of those surveyed by the New York Times, The Gallup organization, ABC News and USA Today, who call themselves Evangelicals, do not think President Bush or the government should be involved in this family battle. What happened to Christian unity? Aren’t we all pro-life? Don’t we all read the same Bible?

I personally know perhaps hundreds of born again Christians who are completely vexed by this story. They are praying for some kind of clarity from the Holy Spirit and are open to having their hearts changed. They search the scriptures looking for those absolutes that will draw them into a position of compassion and understanding. They pray for the families involved in this case. And mostly, they listen when folks express their positions afraid they will be misunderstood if they express their own.

Case in point, last week the pastor of Calvary Baptist in Clearwater, Florida told his congregation that he had written a letter asking Judge George Greer not to return to the church. Judge Greer is the presiding judge in the Terri Schiavo case and has ruled in Michael’s favor on nearly every occasion. Many members of Calvary told me how shocked they were and appalled that their pastor would pass judgment on Greer this way. I asked them if they had registered a complaint with their pastor. No, they weren’t sure that was appropriate.

Judge Greer is a sinner like all the rest of us. It’s not his fault he’s the judge who was assigned the Terri Schiavo case. He’s a judge who happens to be a Christian, not a judge who was placed in his position because he is a Christian. His job is to enforce and uphold the laws of the United States of America, not to make rulings based on what his own particular wants and beliefs may demand. Can you imagine what a mess we would have in this country if every judge had to consult with his religious guide before he ruled on a case? Yes, I want them to be Godly and answer to a higher power but I don’t want them making up laws or bending them to fit their theological doctrine! That is extremely dangerous.

Christians are also divided in this case because of all the protesters. They see all those signs and extreme hatred on display for the world to see and transpose that on Bob and Mary Schindler. Operation Rescue’s Randall Terry is a publicity freak who generates interest because of his strong-armed tactics and semi-professional sign carriers that seem to follow him from crisis to crisis. His job is to stir up the pot and that’s a turn-off to a lot of Christians.

Many Christians do not buy the starving to death argument. Terri is alive because doctors surgically placed a tube into her stomach. Isn’t that a medical procedure? Could she survive without that level of medical intervention? Based on our understanding of this case as determined in the courts the answer is no.

Many Christians do not see this as precedent setting. They do not think the state will come rushing in and pull the plug on all disabled persons. They also do not think this is the right case to be arguing right to life or right to die. It’s too messy and complicated.

Many Christians don’t like Congress or politicians getting involved in personal family matters. They believe disagreements are matters to be resolved in the courts in the opinion polls, or in front of TV cameras at the Hospice in Florida.

Many Christians see the incredible level of distortions reported in this story. It makes it difficult to side with the family when the level of accusations against Michael seems to increase as the family and supporters became more desperate.

Yet here is the main reason I think Christians are divided. We are products of what we experience. Our faith, though founded in the word and the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ, is a product of what has happened to us in our lives with our families and friends and relationships. My friend Glenn Beck is pouring out his soul with the Schindlers because he knows first hand what it is like raising a disabled child. He knows the power of miracles and prayer and doctors blowing their diagnosis. He can see his daughter in Terri’s eyes.

However, there may be thousands, perhaps tens of thousands who have experienced the death of a loved one from cancer, a tragic accident, a stroke or heart attack. They have stood by the bedside of a dying loved one as they took their final breath. They have seen a once vibrant body lying lifeless or paralyzed. They know the pain of letting go and the despair of not being able to do one simple solitary thing. They have spent hours with God begging the inevitable be postponed. They have measured their faith against their doubts. They have had to settle for a quiet “no”, and then the confident reassurance the Holy Spirit brings that our loved one is a breath away from a better life beyond the body.

I know what you’re saying, “This has nothing to do with Terri. Her story is different.” Not in the minds of many believers who can’t paint Michael as the devil, Terri as the abused wife screaming inside her body to live, the suffering parents as Saviors, nor the courts as orchestrators of the greatest injustice since the crucifixion of Christ. This is about the decisions many Christians have had to make on their own praying their faith guided them according to God’s will.

Finally, by in large Christians want to be compassionate and follow the will of Christ in their life. They would like nothing better for Michael to give in and let the parents care for Terri. Yet, in the end, many born-again Evangelical Christians are humbling waiting for the Holy Spirit to change their notions about what is right and wrong in this case. Since there has not be this huge outpouring from all levels of Christianity I can only conclude that the Holy Spirit has been unable to separate us all from our experiences, or doesn’t want to separate us from those forces that have molded us into the Christians we are today; flawed, vexed, divided and still seeking the truth in this Schiavo mess, and more dependant on Christ then ever before.

Al Ruechel, Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved

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