— Spiritual Perspectives —
Living Life without Compromises

By Jerry Cronin
Special to the Independent

“For it is God who is working in you.” — Paul’s letter to the Laodiceans

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.” — Philippians 2:13

The first quote comes from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Laodiceans, one of the lost books of the New Testament.

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) has long held that this short but elegant letter from Paul to the Laodiceans should have been included in the New Testament canon.

These passages remind us that GOD does expect us to keep our bodies clean from sin and think of them as our own temple or sanctuary that is used to worship and glorify HIM.

We were certainly created pure so if our bodies are unclean temples, it is because WE made them that way and they aren’t as GOD created us to be. This first passage troubles me because the only reason certain books were included (or not) into the various versions of the Bible revolve around people, politics and power. The differences between the canon of books in the Roman Catholic Douay version and the Protestant King James version remain today.

My mind and soul are troubled by the speed with which Gallup is getting a Navajo Nation casino just east of town. I am shadoné and I speak out of concern for my in-laws and where this is leading. We are meant to live our spiritual Christian lives without compromise because as soon as the compromise starts, the sin begins to snowball. Now we are being asked to accept Sunday liquor consumption on the Lord’s Day. Even if I knew that the people imbibing in alcohol consumption later in the day had been to church first, I cannot believe in my heart that this is what GOD means by asking us to live a life of HOLINESS.

The Church Rock casino is an example of how a string of compromises begins to erode away people’s confidence in their governance. First of all, there is the problem of legitimacy. Twice the casino proposal has been taken to the Diné people, and twice they have rejected it. In some countries of the world, dictators decided what’s best for the people of a particular country and then jam it down their throat with their military might. In a democracy, legitimacy is established through the “will of the governed” and clearly this doesn’t exist. The second problem is that the Diné people have long recognized that alcohol is an economic catastrophe of the first order. It has been legally banned from the reservation, yet the proposed casino is going to re-introduce this monster! Alcohol does little more than destroy communities; when has it ever built them up? Addiction — whether with alcohol abuse, substance abuse or gambling — has been problematic everywhere gambling has been legalized. It is madness of the first order for our Gallup community to view these two proposals to increase alcohol availability and consumption as non-threatening to the well-being of everybody in our community.

The saddest chapter in all of this is that the alcohol will be served to people just two miles up the road from Rehoboth Christian School. Drunk driving is one of the most taxing and horrific crimes committed against people in this region, state and nation. The scenario is easy to picture… a drunk driver leaves the casino parking lot having been drinking irresponsibly, he or she starts down the access road toward Gallup and approaches people who are leaving a basketball game from the tunnel at Rehoboth. I will leave the rest to your imagination, but I think we’ve seen this picture played out repeatedly. The school children at Rehoboth deserve a much more responsible act from all of us as adult decision makers. We will all pay the price eventually for the profits of a small pyramid of brewers who want to make us addicted to their product. I listen to the horrors of addiction every Sunday night at the county jail... we clearly haven’t paid enough money, lost enough lives or paid enough insurance premiums or else we’d act to stop such folly!

If we don’t allow GOD to work inside us because we make too many compromises, how can we expect HIM or anyone else to know that we are followers of CHRIST?

You can reach Good-man Jerry Cronin at jspcronin@yahoo.com or (505) 863-4796 if you have any questions about the un-programmed Quaker meeting. We meet at noon every Sunday for First Day services at the Red Mesa Center, located next to the Octavia Fellin Public Library.

This column is written by area residents, representing different faith communities, who share their ideas about bringing a spiritual perspective into our daily lives and community issues. For information about contributing a guest column, contact Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola at The Independent: (505) 863-6811 ext. 218 or lizreligion01@yahoo.com.