A theology of getting fired

Published 8:01 pm Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Abortion just keeps getting a bad rap.

As if the movie “Unplanned” didn’t give “service providers” enough fires to put out, here comes news of a stalwart Uber driver stealing the limelight. It seems this fellow realized he was taking a customer to an appointment laced with lethal intent, and he had guts enough to do a U-turn. More power to you, Mister. 

Most of the details come from the abortion seeker’s post on Reddit, a social news and discussion website. The Planned Parenthood clinic closest to her college in upstate New York couldn’t give her an appointment fast enough, so she hired an Uber to take her an hour away to another murder mill. Somehow the Uber driver, an expectant father no less, caught wind of her plans and put her on the spot.

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Was she or wasn’t she going to get an abortion?

Well . . .

So the Uber guy refrained from facilitating her plans through his driving services. Furthermore, he offered to take the customer all the way back to the get-go, but she chose to stay at the gas station where he stopped. Sadly, the 20-year-old eventually found a cabbie who had no trouble putting the dreaded address into his GPS. 

With the likes of Reddit, the story went viral, at least her side of it. And (if you haven’t guessed) she’s talking to lawyers about a way to put a stop to this sort of cruel injustice.

Funny thing, though. None of the major news outlets have confirmed the story. Neither the woman’s name or the driver’s has been made public. Who knows? It could be another one of those Jussie Smollett-type antics.

Or not.

Sources say it took about a nanosecond for Uber to fire the unwilling driver, and it’s that component of the story — the job-losing potential that comes with taking hard stands — that really rattles Christians perusing the headlines these days. Well, at least the kind that don’t rent to co-habitaters, call confused kids by the wrong gender pronoun, bake cakes for celebrations the Bible condemns and such. Yeah, that kind.

Last week I listened to John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, give his take on the Uber ordeal. After praising the driver and saying lots of other pertinent stuff, he mentioned what he calls “a theology of getting fired.” Stonestreet believes it’s a theology any Christian worth his salt better figure out if he plans to live authentically in our culture. He also had a word for believing budget committees: “This guy did the right thing, and I hope his church comes around him and defends him. I appreciate the religious liberty organizations that will stand up for him, but his church needs to come around and replace his income as a show of saying ‘you did the right thing and we’re with you.’”

Oooo, that last line. Think that would go over well as a sermon application next Sunday?

You can be sure folks on Twitter and Facebook are hammering this unsung, unnamed, unemployed Uber hero like Jezebel on Elijah. Relentless. Wrong. And here’s the takeaway: Sleepy congregations in the Bible Belt should take note of what Mr. Stonestreet slid in there at the end. The culture war is heating up. Get ready to support those who take hard stands.

Kim Henderson is a freelance writer. Contact her at kimhenderson319@gmail.com. Follow her on twitter at @kimhenderson319.