You can’t legislate morality

An article by Don Quixote    6 Comments

The following question was posed on the GLCCAlumni.com website, I posted my response over there, but I wanted to share it here.

“How involved in the political area should the Church, or an individual congregation, be?”

I’m going to go out on a limb here and be a voice of decent (I do that so well). As a corporate/universal church, I feel that we should not be involved in politics at all, it is not the job or goal of the church to dictate the political situation of any community that it is involved in. Why? First and foremost politics by their nature are divisive. Can you imagine driving into a new town and saying to your wife, “Hey hun, I wonder where the Republican Pro-Life, Pro-Environment Instrumental Church of Christ is”. You don’t believe me? When was the last time you looked at how many churches are in any given town? Now add political opinions to the mix.

So let’s take that a step down to the individual congregation, “Today’s sermon is ‘How no true Christian can vote for a democrat’, some how that seems to miss the point of what you are there for. In addition, let’s say I’m a member of your church and I think that John Kerry should be president, you’ve just isolated me from everything else you have to say because of a “political” opinion.

Let’s toss party affiliation aside, let’s talk about specific issues on the bill, say a new casino, legalization of marijuana, increasing school taxes, take your pick. Since when is it the job of someone from the church to stand up and tell its members what their view should be on any of these matters (I’ve seen it done in Churches of Christ that I’ve been in and frankly I was appalled)?

So then, what about an individual Christian? Absolutely. I think it is our job first as a citizen of this country to our duty and take part of the political process. As a Christian we should allow our personal believes to lead us in the direction to vote in on both leaders and individual issues.

Now, to the issue of legislating morality, I’m one of those who maintain that you cannot legislate morality. First of all, whose morality do you impose? Your own (some would argue, no God’s because they think God’s and their own are interchangeable)? What happens if my opinions on various moral issues differ from yours? How would you feel if my morality was imposed on you? Our laws are fundamentally moral in nature, but when you break it down to specifics like alcohol (recall that we tried at one time to ban it), marijuana for medical use, indecency, gay marriage or even abortion there is disagreement in the church as to which is the “right” stance on these subjects.

In the end, we want the rest of the world to agree with our personal opinions, we want leaders who agree with us (because obviously we are right), but we simply cannot. There are some things that we have a clear mandate on, others that we don’t, and because we don’t, we cannot presume to impose those on others. No matter how much someone thinks their opinions are right, it doesn’t make it so and we get into dangerous ground when start to dictate those opinions to others.

Because of the diversity of views even among Christians (unless you are so bold as to argue that all true Christians hold the same opinions), as a Church or as a congregation we cannot step into the realm of politics. That needs to be left to the individual Christian.

As Christians we need to set aside this unbending attitude that we are right about everything. That some how your view on baptism, the second coming, the tribulation, divorce and remarriage, [insert any one of a hundred topics here] is the correct and only opinion on the matter.

I think that we need to be a people of convictions, but our fist one should be that we can be wrong, or God forbid, that there might be two opposing views on the subject and both of them are right (more on this below). I disagree sometimes with Regan Clem (sometimes a lot, sometimes I totally agree), but I respect him. Why? First off, he will unashamedly state his opinions, but he is not so bold to think that he can’t be wrong, or that they might change. I think we need to challenge our views all the time, to expose ourselves to differing opinions if for no other reason than to check our own. What a boring world this would be if FOX News was the only game in town, if Rush Limbaugh was the only voice on the radio. We like to listen to people who agree with us, it makes us feel good, but folks, sometimes we are wrong. Heck, sometimes I’m wrong, but I’m open minded enough to admit that possibility exists (though not very likely ).

Sometimes you can both be right even though you hold differing views. Want a good example? I got into a discussion with my boss at The University of Saint Francis. She had written down that we had bi-monthly meetings. I said, “Jane, my understanding is that our meetings are bi-weekly, when are they?” “Well, they are every two weeks.” “Well then they are bi-weekly, meaning every two weeks.” “No, they are bi-monthly, meaning twice a month.” “No Jane, bi-monthly means every two months.” “Are you sure, because I’ve always thought it was the other way around.”

So, I looked it up:

bi • month • ly ( P ) Pronunciation Key (b-mnthl)
adj.
1) Happening every two months.
2) Happening twice a month; semimonthly.

bi • week • ly ( P ) Pronunciation Key (b-wkl)
adj.
1) Happening every two weeks.
2) Happening twice a week; semiweekly.

So there you go. So perhaps a bi-sexual bi-weekly swings both days .

In other news, Michelle and I watch Johnny English last night. Oh my goodness! It has been quite a while since I laughed that hard (yes, I even laughed harder than Napoleon Dynamite). If you get a chance to catch this on HBO, you need to, it was great fun.

Tomorrow is game night, so I’m pretty excited about that, so you all are invited, it starts at 6:30 pm at my house (Eric, I cannot find your email address to add you to my list, but you are welcome as well). A good time will be had by all.