Out Our Way: Fighting brucellosis - Matthew 7:15

Out our way, we do look a "gift horse in the mouth," especially when it comes to disease. A few years ago, the bison in Yellowstone National Park had become too numerous for the amount of grazing and the federal government offered many of the herd to various Native reservations. For the plains tribes like the Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, Cheyenne, Chippewa Cree, Crow and other Montana tribes, the offer was much appreciated for the bison was and remains a crucial part of their history and culture. But even so, the offer was not immediately accepted.

You see, there is a disease that is common among the bison in the Yellowstone area called "brucellosis." The bacteria can infect humans who eat infected meat or milk products, but it also is easily spread to other animals. From what I am told, a common effect of the disease is the miscarriage of the unborn. Infected bison could pass the disease to other animals and cause the major loss of large numbers of cattle, elk, deer, antelope, etc. Oh, yes, the elders of the various tribes as well as local ranchers and hunters were only too happy to "look a gift horse in the mouth."

While the Gospel of Jesus Christ is free to all, there are "tainted" versions of the faith that, like brucellosis, are infected and harmful to the innocent. Faith is a good thing, but tainted faith (infected by greed, corruption, hunger for power, etc.) can be deadly. Consider the Jim Jones cult that masqueraded as a Christian ministry, ending up with the death of hundreds at Jonestown. I think of my cousin who rejected Christianity before her death due to the corruption and hypocrisy she experienced in the so-called "prosperity gospel" mega churches she had come to equate with the Gospel. Before she died she chastised me for being a minister and therefore "one of them!"

My role - and yours if you seek to be a disciple of Jesus - is to be aware of the "brucellosis" that some Christians carry, and quarantine ourselves away from those who are like the corrupt priests and scribes who ran the temple and synagogues in Jesus' day. He called them "ravenous wolves pretending to be sheep." The Enemy and "Ruler of this world" (John 14:30) easily recruits "false prophets" who willingly serve his cause and delude the gullible. Infecting the Church with the "brucellosis of "infected faith." And, like the disease that causes the miscarriages of the bison, cattle, elk, deer, antelope, sheep, etc., many children of God, like my cousin, are destroyed by "spiritual brucellosis." Not all who call themselves Christians "ride for the brand."

Be blessed and be a blessing!

Brother John

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The Rev. John Bruington is the retired pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Havre. He now lives in Colorado, but continues to write "Out Our Way." He can be reached for comment or dialogue at [email protected].