Posted on 12/09/2014 7:17:40 AM PST by wagglebee
“There is no right and wrong!” the angry university student said loudly, storming up to our campus pro-life display.
“Is that right?” my friend Caleb said slowly. The student came to an abrupt stop, realizing, perhaps for the first time, that his worldview was, in philosophical terms, an “argument to commit suicide.”
That anecdote is illustrative of how we’ve been letting the Cultural Left get away with murder. I’m not just referring to the institutionalized destruction of life in the womb or the “mercy-killing” of the old, but also the broad cultural acceptance—including among Christians—of two stupid and dangerous ideas that have allowed the Left to dominate the cultural discussion for decades.
Christians have not been losing in the public square because we do not have the arguments to respond to the New Moral Revolution of the Cultural Left. We have been losing because we have not been making those arguments, or have not been making them articulately enough.
First, Christians are told loudly, we can’t legislate morality.
I could point out that this argument is inevitably used to justify the legality of something blatantly wicked and immoral, like abortion. Yet, I’ve heard countless Christians tell me that while they are pro-life and do believe in Christian ethics, they don’t think trying to impact public policy or bring our message to the public square is useful because “we can’t legislate our morality.”
They’re forgetting something: All laws legislate morality. All laws are put in place because of a value judgement that something should be permitted, restricted, regulated, or banned. When Christians leave the discussion, all we’re doing is ensuring that it is someone else’s code of morality that is being enshrined into law, and someone else’s values are being used as the guiding principle for governance.
If we don’t fight for the lives of pre-born children and demand legal protection for them, for example, we’re not ensuring that the government won’t legislate morality; we’re allowing those who claim that the right to destroy human life at whim exists and is moral to seize and win the day. Eventually, the government will be paying the butchers with our own tax dollars—because a New Morality has been legislated, and ours has been definitively replaced.
A very brief look at the news cycle reveals that the Cultural Left, while silencing Christians with the demand that we cease trying to “legislate our morality,” is attempting to do precisely that. When they howl that gay marriage should be legal and accepted, they are demanding this because they say it is right and good and moral. They are stating that to deny marriage to homosexuals is discriminatory, and therefore wrong. And the solution to this, they tell us, is for the government or the courts to step in and ensure that this wrong is righted, that this injustice is corrected.
It is not that they don’t think morality should be legislated. They simply think that Christian morality should not be legislated.
Which brings me to the second argument the Left has used to silence Christians: That morality is subjective, if it even exists at all. In other words, it’s okay if you believe that, but that only means its right for you. Other people must remain “true to themselves” and do “what’s right for them.”
This is obviously nothing short of profound stupidity, but a brief jaunt on to any university campus will show you that the number of those who believe that morality does not exist (while simultaneously calling fracking and Christian ethics evil) is staggering. I’ve engaged in dozens of debates that went something like this:
Student: “Well, there is no morality.”
Me: “Okay. Do you think rape is wrong?”
Student: “Of course rape is wrong!”
Me: “Why?”
Student (nervously): “Because…you can’t just force yourself on someone.”
Me: “Says who? You’re appealing to a moral law, which necessitates a lawgiver. Who says that is wrong?”
Student (relieved to have found an answer): “The government! It’s illegal!”
Me: “While I’m glad you’ve found your source of morality, wouldn’t you agree that laws have been wrong before? What about slavery? Segregation?”
This is to illustrate, of course, that morality cannot be subjective, or it is not morality. Right and wrong cannot be subjective, or they cease to exist. Appalling crimes like rape and murder should be illegal, because they are immoral. Christians would argue that they are immoral because God, the Lawgiver, has said they are. The Cultural Left cannot claim that banning abortion, for example, is immoral—because they cannot claim anything is immoral. Inevitably, their claims that something is or is not immoral is based on one thing: How they feel about something. (When they appeal to science, they are again being fallacious: Science, of course, can only tell us what is, not what ought to be. Science can reveal to us observable truths, but cannot provide us with correlating value judgements.)
Christians have not been losing in the public square because we do not have the arguments to respond to the New Moral Revolution of the Cultural Left. We have been losing because we have not been making those arguments, or have not been making them articulately enough. We’ve often bought the laughable lies that morality simultaneously does not exist, and cannot be legislated. Both of these lies are simply a means of keeping us from fighting for what is right in the public square. In many cases, we’ve vacated the battlefield. It’s time to engage like never before—because as we see with abortion, assisted suicide, and euthanasia, lives literally depend on it.
I know!
And now we have 4 more years of Mr. Sociopath in charge because of it. I’m not in any way condoning Romney or any of his stances, I can’t stand the guy to be honest. But a vote for him would’ve better served us CONSERVATIVES than a non-vote. Politics isn’t Religion, sometimes you have to choose the lesser of the evils.
I assume (or am I going to be an A$$) that you’re conservative since you’re on this site right?
I have no dog in this fight really—all I said was Romney would’ve been better than Obama, then you and your click got all riled up.
Uh-huh...so what do you suggest since we’re all CONSERVATIVES? Or did FR change overnight to something else?
Oh lord....
Fine! Vote your 3rd parties or stay at home when the next RINO elitist gets selected (you know it’s gonna happen)...and remain bitter LOSERS! Give this country completely over to evil, because that’s exactly what’s happening.
Thank you ;)
I’m not the one who added 8 people when posting a response.
Why would a Christian support a liberal, pro-abortion candidate like Romney anyways
LOL! You too!
Over Obama I did.
By and large, colleges formed by Christian organizations of various stripes have gone at best to the liberal side of their religion, or more commonly, entirely abandoned any Christian underpinnings. Until the university system collapses due to financial failure or outside competition through remote, on-line learning, the secular humanist grip on the ivory tower will remain.
Why is this important? In the 1980s and 1990s, the Christian Right, led by Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, et. al., won significant victories electorally. However, none of the victories were long lived because of the electoral cycle replacing conservatives with liberals (e.g. the 2006 and 2008 elections, the most recent liberal high tide) and the death or retirement of the principal leaders. Of the men listed above, only Robertson tried to groom an heir (Ralph Reed), but he didn't pan out.
Romney had no chance to win over enough Democrats, he should have just ran against Obama in the Democrat primary.
Until the hidden oligarchs who choose the candidates for both parties are eliminated from the process, this evil of no actual choice but evil’s worker will continue. That elimination will not happen because those same oligarchs are reaching for the reset button, to bring down the Republic before We The People awaken to our reality. The euphemistically named Federal Reserve was the beginning of the end ...
The author makes the mistake of thinking the majority of U.S. voters are real Christians. What is the end result of the votes of 200 million sinners?
You think a conservative should pull the lever for a pro-abortion, pro-homo agenda, pro-gov-health care, pro-amnesty leftist [question mark]
I don’t. I would never vote for that candidate in a million years.
He was a far worse candidate than was McCain and Dole, none of these squishes had a chance. McCain got a huge boost when he picked Sarah for Veep and then his own campaign started attacking her behind the scenes and then he all but endorsed Obama a week or so BEFORE the election.
The GOP is never going to win the White House again until it nominates a real conservative for President.
I would suggest that withholding one’s vote from an unacceptable candidate is a valid tactic - no matter who starts yelping about it.
I do find it interesting that you appear to claim the mantle of conservatism by reason of your 10 month tenure at Free Republic, despite your expressed opinions (at least on this thread).
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