Falsehood Flies - and Truth Comes Limping After It
-Jonathan Swift-
Unfortunately many of our political leaders possess intellect without morals, ability without scruple, and courage without honor. Note that the three aspects which they are without only make sense if there is an ultimate standard by which to determine between that which is right and good and that which is wrong and evil. Categories of right and wrong or good and evil have no ultimate value unless there is an ultimate "evaluator" to determine such values. We Christians call that ultimate value maker, "Our Father who art in heaven."
Unfortunately, not all Christians agree on what God's word means by what it says. This is why many Christians who are LGBTQ (a designation started in 1996) or those who favor abortion or even allowing the child to die alone if he or she survives after birth (which is technically murder, but let's not quibble - I speak as if I were mad) or suicide or euthanasia, believe that their position is based on truth. God's truth! They believe the Bible must be seen as a living document that changes with cultural norms of the day. As James Russell Lowell said so eloquently: "New occasions teach new duties; time makes ancient good uncouth. They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of truth." And there it is again, the ancient question: What is truth? Without Biblical truth, descriptions of morals, scruples and honor turn into something devoid of biblical meaning.
I remember reading in college the seminal work, Situational Ethics: The New Moralitywritten in 1966 by Joseph Fletcher, a theologian who later became an atheist. Situational ethics takes into account the particular context of an act when evaluating it ethically, rather than judging it according to absolute moral standards. The only absolute moral standard for Dr. Fletcher by which all was to be measured was "Love" for it was the ultimate determiner of ethical decision making. The only problem was, who defined Love? Here is an example of "Love" according to Situational Ethics.
"People [with children with Down's syndrome]... have no reason to feel guilty about putting a Down's syndrome baby away, whether it's "put away" in the sense of hidden in a sanitarium or in a more responsible lethal sense. It is sad; yes. Dreadful. But it carries no guilt. True guilt arises only from an offense against a person, and a Down's is not a person."(Joseph Fletcher (April 1968). "The Right to Die". The Atlantic Monthly: 59-64.)
In case you wonder how we got to the state of morality in America in the last 50 years... this is how!! Until and unless we understand the Bible and are willing to submit to its teaching, truth will become a casualty to propaganda.
"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments."
- Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence -
Serving Him with you
Until He comes for us,
Fred