{"id":2122,"date":"2011-04-26T08:20:17","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T15:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eaf.net\/mvp\/?p=2122"},"modified":"2021-02-07T07:14:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T15:14:01","slug":"usa-v-timothy-david-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/2011\/usa-v-timothy-david-miller\/","title":{"rendered":"USA v. Timothy David Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What&#8217;s the deal with Timothy David Miller&#8217;s alleged involvement in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/2008\/12\/05\/mrs-kramer-vs-mrs-kramer.html\">Lisa Miller<\/a>&#8216;s alleged international parental kidnapping of her own biological daughter (a minor of whom she had legal custody)?<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know, even though I&#8217;ve read plenty of news accounts and other online commentary.<\/p>\n<p>Is Timo guilty as accused?<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know that either. After reading a document purporting to be the official <!--more--> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.glad.org\/uploads\/docs\/cases\/miller-jenkins-v-miller-jenkins\/miller-jenkins-criminal-complaint.pdf\">criminal complaint<\/a>, it certainly appears he did as accused. Even so, <b>I begin with the assumption that Timo acted out of godliness<\/b>, not rebellion against God-ordained civil authority.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming his involvement, here are more questions I have:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How did this far-off, non-Mennonite case culminate with Timo&#8217;s involvement?\n<li>On what Scripture(s) did Timo establish his course of action, generally as well as specifically?\n<li>Whose counsel did Timo seek prior to and in the process of being involved?\n<li>Which counsel did he choose to go against? And on what basis?\n<li>What is Timo&#8217;s track record in matters of submission to civil authority?\n<\/ul>\n<p>These questions are important to me, not so much because I need to know <i>his<\/i> answers, but because I need to know what <i>my<\/i> answers would be&#8230;if this were about Mark Roth.<\/p>\n<p>And what about the certainty some (many?) have that the following verses describe Timo&#8217;s developing ordeal:<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-left:30px; margin-right:30px; border:1px black solid; padding:10px\"><span class=\"verse\">&#8220;If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"verse\">Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God&#8230;&#8221;<\/span> (1 Peter 4:14,16).<\/div>\n<p>So far, I have seen no indication that Timo&#8217;s reproach or suffering is <span class=\"verse\">&#8220;for the name of Christ.&#8221;<\/span> By that I mean that I don&#8217;t see any evidence that he is being targeted <i>for being a Christian<\/i>. At this point, I simply do not see him as a victim of anti-Christian persecution, targeted primarily because he bears <span class=\"verse\">&#8220;the name of Christ.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>That said, I&#8217;m not ready to state unequivocally that he erred or sinned in getting involved. Just too many unknowns exist for me to be certain enough to express so strong an opinion.<\/p>\n<p>If Timo (or anyone else involved) needs to repent of anything associated with this whole deal, I hope they come to the place of seeing that and acting upon it to God&#8217;s glory.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, if he has done as charged and if he did so for godly reasons and Christian convictions (<span class=\"verse\">&#8220;as a Christian&#8221;<\/span>), may he have the strength and grace to give an humble witness for the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>May righteousness prevail, may the name of Christ be exalted, and may God&#8217;s kingdom be advanced.<\/p>\n<p>Now for some important-though-tangential side notes:<\/p>\n<p>It is virtually impossible to make personal decisions that have no impact others. In this particular case, I&#8217;m sorry to see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.anabaptists.org\/places\/cam\/\">Christian Aid Ministries<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.anabaptists.org\/places\/lnl.html\">Lamp &amp; Light Publishers<\/a>, The Gingerich Home for the Elderly, the Sierra Madre Mission, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goldenruletravel.com\">Golden Rule Travel<\/a> brought into the story (along with the name of Christ and the Mennonite &#8220;brand&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind that the media is not friendly to Christianity, especially the conservative &#8220;flavor.&#8221; They almost certainly will slant and filter their reporting accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>Beware of trusting the privacy and security of any online (and other) digital communications. Be very circumspect with such communication, be it via email, online forum, cellphone messaging, fax, or a simple telephone. (See <a href=\"http:\/\/eaf.net\/mvp\/2008\/i-am-not-paranoid\/\">this<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/eaf.net\/mvp\/2008\/another-security-lapse\/\">this<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/eaf.net\/mvp\/2010\/how-privacy-vanishes-online\/\">this<\/a>, at least.)<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know Timo Miller, whom I consider a brother in the faith. To my recollection, I&#8217;ve never met him nor had any communication with him. And, no, I&#8217;ve never been to Virginia, Vermont, Tennessee, Canada, or Nicaragua. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is Timo Miller on the right side?<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,16,12],"tags":[717,644,1085,1069,203,974,547,39,513,424,973],"class_list":["post-2122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-101","category-days-of-noah","category-lessons-for-living","tag-law-enforcement","tag-laws","tag-lisa-miller-case","tag-miller","tag-missionaries","tag-nicaragua","tag-parenting","tag-persecution","tag-privacy","tag-security","tag-timothy-david-miller"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prJUJ-ye","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}