Is it weird to quote yourself? What if it’s just to get the conversation going again? Well, here goes anyway: this is from our conversation a couple of weeks ago when I spoke on Simon the Zealot and Misguided Zeal… “Zeal is normal and good, but misguided zeal can be deadly!” Who are we talking about here…“us” or “them”?

Osama bin Laden (9/11). Scott Roeder (passionately committed to defending the rights of the unborn. Yet, as an anti-abortion militant, he is guilty of murdering Dr. George Tiller, an abortion doctor, in Kansas on May 31, 2009 in the middle of a worship service at Dr. Tiller’s church! Roeder forgot that the 6th commandment protects all life, even that of an abortion doctor!). Fred Phelps (leader of Westboro Baptist Church, the most controversial church in the country – it’s reported that this hate group spends hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on picketing things like funerals for gays and soldiers. They run multiple websites expressing anger, condemnation, and judgment. On their websites, they claim that “God hates fags” and “God hates America.”

Here’s another person with misguided zeal – As a hint, I’ll give you a few of his quotes: “I have built my organization on fear.” "You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun." "They can't collect legal taxes from illegal money," Al Capone – head of the Chicago mafia in the 1920’s! Capone’s most fruitful years were during the Prohibition Era when he flooded the market with illegal bootleg alcohol. At his prime, he had city politicians, governors, congressmen, lawyers, and half the police force on his payroll. If “results” is all that matters, it’s easier to get people moving in the direction you want them to go (for the short-haul) than treating them with respect and dignity along the way. Near the end of Capone’s life, he owed millions of $s in back taxes. In 1931 Capone was imprisoned for tax evasion. Capone’s system worked for a while, but then it came crashing down.

Enough about “them”. What about “us”? We too can possess misguided zeal but conceal it in very sophisticated ways. God-honoring zeal would be a desire to glorify God with every area of our life. (1 Corinthians 10:31 says it clearly – “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”) Misguided zeal is a love for being “right” and an arrogance about being “right”. Here are a few questions for reflection to see if you have misguided zeal: Do you enjoy being “right” and feel smug about your morality? Do you try to control other people’s morality? What does misguided zeal look like in our lives? Maybe it’s being too excited about the fact that your kids are homeschooled… Or too excited that your kids attend public school… Or too excited that your kids attend private school… Maybe it’s being too tightly connected with a political movement: arrogance about being a Republican OR arrogance about being a Democrat OR arrogance about not really being into politics… Maybe it’s hating government and planning to avoid paying your taxes.

Pope Benedict XVI gave a public address (Vatican City) earlier this month (March 2010) that teaches us about our own misguided zeal. In his public address he said, “Jesus taught people to not judge and not condemn one’s neighbor. Let us learn to be intransigent toward sin – starting with our own- and indulgent with people.” May we have that kind of zeal in dealing with our own sin instead of zeal for judging the sin of others.