Open Letter to the WC BOS – Legacy at stake: Jesus or Pilate?

Dear Warren County Board of Supervisors,

I write this with great trepidation and concern. It appears several of you have already made up your minds (proposed MOA, campaign supporters, submitting book removal requests, etc.) about your final decision regarding Samuels Public Library. It is my hope you reconsider. When I voted in the last local election, Vicky Cook asked me for her support. When I replied that I lived in the North River District, she responded pleasantly by saying if elected, she planned to represent everyone.

I have several concerns I’d like to address. The first is the appearance that the BOS is not separating church and state. History is full of church/state governments going badly. Secondly, legislating morality doesn’t work. You can’t force people to change —  Remember Prohibition? Thirdly, Samuels is a beacon that is well respected by other area libraries. When I was president of the board at Samuels, the director at Handley Library came for a visit because she had heard of all of the innovations we had implemented.

We often work exclusively with important downstream issues like abortion when we should be doing more work upstream to prevent unwanted pregnancies. To do that, we need to follow Christ’s model of reaching out to others, not like him. This means engaging folks and learning about the trauma and systematic bias they experience. This process can help us develop empathy and understanding. It can assist us in coming up with effective upstream solutions. This brings lasting change because those affected have a voice.

The religious leaders of the day didn’t like Jesus reaching out to others, as well as his practice of not following church rules. They chose instead to join with Rome to eliminate Jesus. I submit that you can’t judge or hate someone in the Kingdom. Instead, love, as demonstrated by Christ, attracts folks to the church and brings about long-lasting transformation. I’ve always liked the song that says, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”

As constitutional leaders, I hope you choose to represent all of your constituents, like Ms. Cook’s campaign promise. How will you be remembered? Will you be like Pontius Pilate, who buckled under the complaints of the religious leaders and chose to sentence Jesus to death? Pilate washed his hands, showing his displeasure with the decision, but blamed his action on the religious leaders. His legacy is not a good one. Will you be brave and represent freedom by leaving a wonderful institution alone, or will your legacy be one with a narrow focus trying to limit freedom?

I hope you vote for freedom.

Respectfully submitted,

J. Michael Spory
North River District
Warren County