GO IN THE STRENGTH YOU

HAVE:
GOD IS OUR LABOR UNION

2010 Religious Liberty Sermon

GIDEON RECEIVES A
SURPRISE VISIT
The angel of the Lord came and sat
down under the oak in Ophrah that
belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where
his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a
winepress to keep it from the Midianites.
Judges 6:11
The Bible tells us that
Gideon is threshing
wheat in the winepress.
Farmers say that
threshing involves
separating the hull
from the kernel or
grain of the wheat.
The grain contains
the germ – the part
you want to keep.
The trick is to get
some wind to carry
the lighter hull
away so that what
remains is the
heavier grain.
How is wine made?

Grapes are crushed

and the juice is
collected in a big vat.
So when you’re threshing,
you want the hull to blow
around and when you’re
pressing, you want the
juice to be contained.
Why would Gideon do
something as foolish as
trying to thresh wheat in a
winepress? The last six
words of Judges 6:11
provide the answer…
“to keep it from the Midianites.”

Gideon was more concerned

about hiding from the Midianites
than he was about threshing
wheat in the best location.
When the angel of the
Lord appeared to
Gideon, he said, “The
Lord is with you,
mighty warrior.”
Judges 6:12
How could the angel
refer to Gideon as a
“mighty warrior”
when he was acting
like a coward hiding
out from the
Midianites?
Let’s look at
Gideon’s response…
"But sir," Gideon replied, "if
the Lord is with us, why has
all this happened to us?
Where are all his wonders
that our fathers told us
about when they said, 'Did
not the Lord bring us up out
of Egypt?' But now the Lord
has abandoned us and put
us into the hand of Midian.”
Judges 6:13
In essence, Gideon is
saying to the angel
that he would be a
mighty warrior if God
had kept His promise
to defeat the enemy,
but they were still a
problem.
JOB LOSS MOUNTING DEBT FAMILY WOES

With all of life’s problems, do

you lack a feeling of security
like Gideon because God
seems to be letting things get
out of hand?
Perhaps like Gideon, you may
be saying, “God, what’s going
on? It’s not supposed to be
like this.”
God’s response to Gideon in Judges
6:14,

“Go in the strength you have and

save Israel out of Midian’s hand.
Am I not sending you?”
God wanted Gideon to
understand that with God
on his side, they could
overcome the Midianites
and any other problem.
LABOR
UNIONS
Sharlene Harwood is a
Seventh-day Adventist
and Robert Roesser is
a Roman Catholic.
They both believe that
it is God’s will that they
NOT join or financially
support a labor union.
 LABOR UNIONS

Opinions vary about whether

labor unions are a good thing.
But no one doubts the reason
why they came into existence.
Employees believed that there
was strength in numbers.
 LABOR UNIONS

To earn a better living, workers

believed it was necessary to
be in solidarity with other
employees in a labor union.
 LABOR UNIONS

When tough economic times

came, employees felt they
needed to stand together
against the employer!
 LABOR UNIONS

The theory was to have one

agent, the union, speak for
everybody with one strong voice.
LABOR UNIONS
AND THE
CHRISTIAN
Is the collective strength of a
labor union consistent with
God’s will for His followers?
When God says “Go in the
strength you have….am I not
sending you?” is this
strength collective strength?
Does it mean banding with
others – nonbelievers – to
accomplish peace of mind?
Now all the Midianites, Amalekites
and other eastern peoples joined
forces and crossed over the
Jordan and camped in the Valley
of Jezreel.
Judges 6:33
In response to the assembling
of Gideon’s enemies, he called
for some solidarity. He relied
upon strength in numbers –
32,000 men to be exact.
Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal
(that is, Gideon) and all his men
camped at the spring of Harod.
The camp of Midian was north
of them in the valley near the hill
of Moreh.
Judges 7:1
The Lord said to Gideon, "You have
too many men for me to deliver Midian
into their hands. In order that Israel
may not boast against me that her
own strength has saved her,…
…announce now to the people, 'Anyone
who trembles with fear may turn back
and leave Mount Gilead.’" So twenty-two
thousand men left, while ten thousand
remained.
Judges 7:2, 3
After the majority of
Gideon’s men left, God
said that the 10,000 men
who remained were still
too many to win the battle,
so He devised a test.
 THE TEST

But the Lord said to Gideon,

"There are still too many men.
Take them down to the water,
and I will sift them for you
there. If I say, 'This one shall
go with you,' he shall go; but
if I say, 'This one shall not go
with you,' he shall not go.”
Judges 7:4
 THE TEST

So Gideon took the men

down to the water. There the
Lord told him, "Separate
those who lap the water with
their tongues like a dog
from those who kneel down
to drink.”
Judges 7:5
 300 REMAIN

And the number of those

who lapped, putting their
hand to their mouth, was
three hundred men; but
all the rest of the people
got down on their knees
to drink water.
Judges 7:6
 300 REMAIN

Then the Lord said to

Gideon, "By the three
hundred men who lapped I
will save you, and deliver
the Midianites into your
hand. Let all the other
people go, every man to his
place."
Judges 7:7
With God’s guidance and
power, Gideon and the 300
men utterly defeated the
Midianites. He didn’t need
the original 32,000.
What does this famous
Bible story tell us about
God’s approach to righting
wrongs and winning
battles through collective
force via labor unions?
God is opposed to the “strength in
numbers” theory of organized labor.
God’s approach to problem solving is
summed up in Zechariah 4:6, ‘“Not by
might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’
says the Lord of hosts.”
God’s words to Gideon reveal God’s
global view about righting wrongs:

“Go in the strength you

have….Am I not sending you?”
Experts in labor relations have a
different view. They would
advise that the ultimate weapon
for labor unions is the strike.
To win wage concessions from the
employer, the union members –
acting as one voice – withhold
their services to injure the
business or employer. The strike
strategy is to convince the
employer that it is cheaper to pay
higher wages than to lose money
during the strike.
 What should a Christian
employee do?

Trust GOD’s power rather than the

power of human force to work out
problems. This is clear through
Gideon’s experience.
 AN IMPORTANT LESSON

The “Gideon, God, and 300”

team shows us that brute force
is not God’s ideal way for
solving problems.
Whatever you do, work at it
with all your heart, as
working for the Lord, not for
men, since you know that
you will receive an
inheritance from the Lord as
a reward. It is the Lord Christ
you are serving.
Colossians 3:23, 24
Can you imagine striking
against God – trying to force
His hand? That is just the
opposite of God’s
partnership with Gideon.
When soldiers came to
Jesus to get some
practical advice for
living, He told them…
“Don't extort money and
don't accuse people falsely—
be content with your pay.”
Luke 3:14
Labor strikes violate two
principles laid down by Jesus:

1. extorting money

2. not being content with

wages.
The Bible never says that we
must continue to work for our
employer no matter how little we
are paid, but it does teach that
joining with a collective to force
higher wages out of our employer
through threats of financial harm
is NOT God’s way.
Ellen White and the pope had
similar concerns about labor
unions. Pope Leo XIII (1810-
1903) in Section 16 of his
encyclical Longinqua wrote the
following:
“Now, with regard to entering
societies, extreme care should be
taken not to be ensnared by error.
And We wish to be understood as
referring in a special manner to the
working classes, who assuredly
have the right to unite in
associations for the promotion
of their interests;…
…a right acknowledged by the
Church and unopposed by nature.
But it is very important to take
heed with whom they are to
associate, lest whilst seeking aid
for the improvement of their
condition they may be imperiling
far weightier interests.”
Pope Leo cautioned Catholics
not to join a “society” that
would compromise God’s word
in order to secure higher wages.
Of all the popes, Leo XIII wrote
most extensively about labor
relations.
His writings do not encourage
Catholics to support the kind of
secular labor unions we have in
North America. Pope Leo
supported unions comprised
exclusively of Catholics –
workers who share a common
religious belief.
Ellen White cautioned Adventists,
in Testimonies to the Church,
volume 7, p. 84, about trading
away individual liberty of
conscience by supporting labor
unions.
Men are seeking to bring those
engaged in the different trades
under bondage to certain
unions. This is not God's
planning, but the planning of a
power that we should in no
wise acknowledge….
In this work [of sharing the gospel] we
are to preserve our individuality. We
are not to unite with secret societies
or with trade-unions. We are to stand
free in God, looking constantly to
Christ for instruction.
Elsewhere Ellen White wrote
that employees who belonged
to unions could not “possibly
keep the Decalogue,” (Letter 26,
1903). Strong language! But
she rests her counsel on Jesus’
teaching in Matthew 22:37-40.
Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your
mind.’ This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is
like it: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.’ All the Law and the
Prophets hang on these two
commandments."
Giving up individual rights to
increase the power of the
collective, threatening or harming
employers with strikes, both are
inconsistent with loving God and
loving our neighbor. We are
teaming up with those who do not
follow Jesus to win an economic
war based on strength of the
collective.
This is just the opposite of
Gideon and the 300 teaming up
with God to defeat the Midianite
collective. “Go in the strength you
have….Am I not sending you?”
Dr. Robert Roesser
Robert Roesser, a Catholic, was a
university professor. He had
religious objections to joining or
financially supporting the national
teachers’ union because it, like
most unions today, supports
abortion and homosexual rights.
The teachers’ union was hardly
what Pope Leo endorsed: a union
of Catholics supporting Catholic
principles. It was a union that
opposed two important doctrines
of the Catholic Church. When Dr.
Roesser would not support the
teachers’ union, he was fired.
Sharlene Harwood
Sharlene Harwood, a Canadian
Seventh-day Adventist nurse,
would not support the nurses’
union because of her
denominational and personal
religious beliefs.
Both nurse Harwood
and Dr. Roesser had
to go to court to
protect their religious
beliefs. In both
cases, the union
fought them to
preserve the power
of the collective.
For nurse Harwood
the union settled on
the eve of the trial.
For Dr. Roesser, he
had to fight his way
through the United
States Court of
Appeals to win his
case.
 What did these employees win?

They won the right to keep working

without having to compromise their
conscience by paying compulsory
fees to the union.
Today the battle for conscience
against labor unions continues,
but the United States courts agree
that religious objectors should be
able to redirect their union fees
away from the union, generally to
a mutually acceptable charity.
New fronts in the battle for
religious freedom in the
workplace have opened up. There
are powerful forces in the U.S.
Congress trying to make it easier
for labor unions to represent
employees by taking away the
opportunity for an employee
secret ballot vote on union
representation.
More companies whose
employees are represented by
labor unions will mean more
Adventists will be represented,
against their will, by labor unions.
When the union arrives, generally union
fee payments become compulsory –
only one of the dangers for employees
of faith. Not long ago, the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled (14 Penn Plaza v. Pyett) that
the collective agreements negotiated by
labor unions can take away the right of
individual employees to go to court to
protect the civil rights, including their
right to religious accommodation.
“how can men obey [Jesus’
words to love our neighbor],
and at the same time pledge
themselves to support that
which deprives their neighbors
of freedom of action?”
Letter 26, 1903
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“Go in the strength you
have….Am I not sending you?”