Grace Church
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Burlington, WI 53105

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Government Can’t Legislate Morality Judges 21:25 Kingdom Principles in a Political World: Sermon #6 August 31st, 2008 “I want to raise a generation devoid of conscience.” Those bone-chilling words by Hitler now appear at the entrance of Auschwitz. At the famous Nuremberg War trials Nazis were tried for "war crimes." To justify the mass murder of Jews, the Supreme Court of Germany had declared Jews to be "nonpersons." If a race of people cease to be persons, then to murder them could not be considered a crime. Nazi war criminals were very clever. What did they do? They stood up and said, “We’ve done nothing wrong. We acted according to our own culture, according to our own moral values. There was nothing wrong in our killing six million Jews.” Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust, protested, "I had to obey the laws of war and my flag." Nazi defense attorneys objected with, “Who are you to come here from an alien culture, another society, and impose your morals on us? Don't you know that all truth is relative and morals are culturally relative?" Sounds pretty familiar! According to one survey 75% of Americans reject the idea that there are absolute moral truths. Most believe truth is relative to the situation. 80% of teenagers believe that there is no such thing as absolute moral truth. They also claim that nobody can know for certain whether or not they actually even know what truth is. A mere 6% believe in moral absolutes and what should be frightening for us in the Church, just 9% of born-again teens believe in moral absolutes. We have a problem!! On the surface, “as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else,” sounds pretty good. There are things we’d all agree are morally acceptable, but that we should avoid if others could be hurt. There’s nothing wrong with swinging a baseball bat around, unless you’re in a roomful of people. Yet as a moral guideline, “as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else” is a pretty skimpy ethical principle. Some common slogans are, “You can't legislate morality” or “Keep government out of the bedroom.” Morality will always be legislated, the question is “whose morality?” Someone’s moral code will always fill the public square. Today immorality is being legislated as God and transcendent values are removed from the public square. Historian, Will Durant, observed, “The greatest question of our time is not communism versus individualism, not Europe versus America, not even the East versus the West; it is whether men can live without God?” Can man live without God? Let me put that another way, can man live without transcendent values? Can we live in a world without standards of morality?    At the heart of the question is; what makes the Judeo-Christian ethic superior to modern paganism? By the same token, what makes a volunteer at a drug rehab center better than a dope pusher? What makes someone who runs a shelter for battered women better than a wife-beater? What makes the morality of those who hid Jews during the Holocaust superior to those who executed them? If morality is subjective, who's to say that one choice is preferable to another? Every vice and depravity to which humanity is heir has its intellectual champions. If you doubt that, read the Marquis de Sade, who argued passionately for sexual brutality.   This fuzzy moral reasoning is not new. One of the saddest books of the Bible, records a time of anarchy, violence and debauchery – the book of Judges. Turn to the last verse where the writer summarizes those horrible days, 21:25 (p. 187). “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” Secularists teach that one can be neutral in moral matters. The Conventional Wisdom being propagated in what has been dubbed the “new dark ages” of moral decay is that our world should be one with no boundaries. But is morality impossible to legislate? More importantly, can we live in that kind of world…would we even want to? As we continue our series Kingdom Principles in a Political World, we’re dealing with a popular worldview that morality cannot be legislated. It’s our premise that Morality will always be legislated. If you’re taking notes. 1. A moral vacuum is impossible. If today's students have learned anything during nearly two decades of education, the one thing that’s been impressed upon their minds is that, “Truth is relative…there are no absolutes.”  I heard of one student who hadn’t quite gotten the message. When his professor said, "We can know nothing for certain," the young man raised his hand asking, "Professor, are you sure about that?" The prof replied, "I'm certain." While that may be a joke, it points out the underlying inconsistency and contradiction of this whole concept. To say there are no absolutes is a contradiction in terms, The statement itself is an absolute statement. To say absolutely there are no absolutes is self-contradictory. When there is no moral standard, when the public square of virtues is vacant, truth and values drift on the winds of public favor or opinion polls. Not only is there an absence of a transcendent standard from God, there’s an absence of any objective standard. Human culture though cannot exist in a moral vacuum. Some value system will always fill the vacuum. Can you imagine trying to function in any area of your life without any objective standards? It’s impossible to function when all the "rules" are relative and subjective. Just say that tomorrow you go to the store at 8 am and $1.00 is worth $5.00. Because of this windfall of all that your money will buy, you return at 10 am only to discover that now $1.00 is worth 25 cents. The next day you return to find that $1.00 is worth 50 cents. Or, how about just attempting to drive to the store if everything is relative and subjective? Can you imagine what it would be like without speed limits or stop signs? It would be chaos. Soon the biggest and fastest cars would rule the road. A world without rules is hell on earth and even godless Hollywood realizes this. Virtually every film made depicting life after Nuclear War, after civilization and governments have been destroyed, reveals only chaos and anarchy. That was powerfully seen in the cult classic, Mad Max. The picture is one of chaos, anarchy and pandemonium. Why? Everything is relative and subjective. There’s not an objective or transcendent standard. Those who hold that society can survive in a moral vacuum naively believe in humanism. They are either ignorant of or deny the Biblical truth of the depravity of man. They want to believe that humanistic tenet that "man is basically good.” God’s Word rightly teaches that man is depraved, Romans 3:10-18, 23 (p. 797). Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor to President Carter, vividly illustrates in his book Out of Control what happens when mankind rejects God and His laws. He points out that after World War I “the ruling elite” put their confidence in man's ability to solve man's moral problems through government. Growing faith in the scientific revolution generated optimism about mankind’s future condition, and the onset of the 20th century was hailed as the real beginning of the Age of Reason. World War II, Nazi Germany and the rise of communism quickly proved that man is not basically good. The Third Reich caused the deaths of 17 million people, among them Jews, Gypsies, Poles and prisoners of war. Stalin's reign of terror resulted in even more deaths. Anywhere from 20 to 25 million people died in labor camps, through artificial famines, and in outright executions. Mao's Red revolution resulted in the deaths of 29 million Chinese. How ironic that during their reigns of terror, Hitler, Stalin and Mao all claimed to be working to improve the lot of the average citizen by producing a "better society." Want to know what a world void of moral values looks like? Look at Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Russia or China today!  What's the point? In the midst of a spiritual and moral vacuum, evil always rises to the top. Where there is no objective standard, despots are always waiting in the wings to grab power. There can be no such thing as a moral vacuum without either evil becoming predominant, or chaos and anarchy becoming the order of the day. As Calvin observed, “It is bad to live under a prince who permits nothing, but much worse to live under one who permits everything.” Interestingly, in those nations which still enjoy the greatest human freedoms, the traditional role of religion is denigrated; while in nations that have little or no freedom, a longing for the spiritual is the greatest. In the West intellectuals widely disdain religion; in Communist China they cry out for its return! Can a moral vacuum really exist? History and the Bible powerfully demonstrate the absurdity of such an idea. 2. Morality will always be legislated, the question is which one. Some very creative crooks broke in to a department store but they didn't take anything. Instead, they just switched the price tags. The tag on a $400 camera was placed on a box of stationery. A $10 sticker from a book was attached to an outboard motor. Everything was shuffled. When the store opened the next day, you’d have expected total chaos. Surprisingly, though, the store operated normally at first. Some customers literally got some steals while others felt merchandise was way overpriced. Incredibly, four hours slipped by before the hoax was discovered! The Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, warned about those who want to switch the moral price tags of a culture. He writes, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (5:20). Everyone is seeking to legislate some type of morality. Let me illustrate this by using one of the most divisive issues in America, abortion, to show how morality is always legislated and imposed on others by both sides in the debate. It’s widely believed pro-lifers want to cram morals down the throats of everyone else, while pro-choicers are the reasonable ones who don’t want to impose on anyone. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both sides in the abortion debate are actively seeking to impose moral standards on others. It’s obvious what pro-life people want to impose: they want to protect the baby and, thus, impose on the mother the duty to carry her baby to term. But what is so often missed in this debate is that pro-abortion activists want to impose their morals on others as well: they want to impose the morals of the mother on the baby and, in many cases, the father. For example, if the mother chooses to keep the baby, the father must pay child support. But if instead, she chooses to abort the baby, he has absolutely no say in the matter. Such a choice imposes on the father by depriving him of fatherhood and the right to protect his own child. And when abortion is chosen, the morals imposed on the baby come in the form of a knife, vacuum, or scalding chemical. So while the pro-life side wants to impose continued pregnancy on the mother, the pro-abortion side wants to impose death on the baby. Do you see it? Even liberals want to legislate and impose morality on others! The only question is: “Whose morality should be legislated?” Let me give another example of the imposing of morality under the guise of “rights.” The 5th and the 14th amendments of our Constitution provide explicitly for the protection of private property. That means that the government can’t take my property and I can basically do with it as I desire. So if I don’t want to loan my car to Mike Cote, I don’t have to. But if I was renting a house and Mike and Jami were living together instead of being married, I would, under government mandate, have to rent to them… even though it’s my property and more importantly, violates my convictions about marriage and morality. When a Christian refuses to rent to an unmarried couple, the couple takes the Christian to court and wins. What if it’s my company? Shouldn’t I be able to hire who I want? About the only group who can still refuse to hire homosexuals are religious organizations, and the pressure to change that is tremendous! Don’t believe me! Ask the Boy Scouts! Morality will always be legislated, the question is which one. 3. Morality must always be based on transcendent moral absolutes. So what is a moral absolute? An absolute is a universal norm or moral law that applies to all men and women, everywhere, under all circumstances. The best example of absolutes is found in the Ten Commandments. If just the absolutes delineated in the Ten Commandments were applied to our world, most of societal problems would cease to exist. Morals and ethics are dependent upon authority. Absolutes are dependent upon transcendent authority. Let me simplify that: No God=No Absolutes! Morality and Judeo-Christian ethics can never be divorced. The basis of all morality is God’s existence. Morality and religion are Siamese twins which cannot be separated. It’s a ludicrous notion that we can somehow eradicate religion from schools and government and still have morality, that somehow morality can exist independently of religion. Careful scrutiny shows the impossibility of that concept. I’m not saying that non-religious people have no morality, but they accomplish that feat by living inconsistently by what the purport to believe. Though they deny God, they nevertheless live as if they were created by Him. Morality is a child of religion; if, like the prodigal, it leaves home without its parents, it always ends up in the swamp of moral bankruptcy. We can no more have morality without God than you can have trees without roots. Without an objective standard from outside the human situation, morality is simply a matter of personal feelings or preferences. 4. Believers must live by absolutes if we are going to be a witness to a lost world. The Old Testament book of Judges is a shocking book. What’s most shocking is that these folk often thought that they were doing the right thing and they were also God's people. Though their belief system was Theistic, their behavior was Humanistic. Today we could call them Humanistic Christians. Friend, are you a Humanistic Christian? Do you live according to God's Word and absolute truth, or do you have your own personal, subjective ethical code? Let me draw your attention to just one absolute. Exodus 20:16 says, "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." Paul reiterates this absolute and fleshes it out for us. Ephesians 4:25, "Therefore, putting away lying, each one speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another." But this absolute is completely opposite to the advice giving by pop psychologist, Joyce Brothers. In an article entitled "Lies Men Tell Women," she said, "Men lie to women. Women lie to men. And most people agree that some lying is even necessary—to avoid petty squabbles and to grease the wheels of a relationship." God says that lying is wrong and it's a sin! So which ethic do you live under? All of us lie from time to time. The difference is, do we view it as sin, confess it and repent of it, or is it instead acceptable behavior...depending upon the circumstances? If we lie to our mates or our children or to our neighbors or on the job, how are we then going to lead lost individuals to the One who said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"? If we’re going to be the salt and light we’re commanded to be (Matt. 5:13-16), we must first ourselves function from absolutes. A young lady was soaking up the sun's rays on a Florida beach when a little boy in his swimming trunks, carrying a towel, came up to her and asked her, "Do you believe in God?" She was surprised by the question but she replied, "Why, yes, I do." Then he asked her: "Do you go to church every Sunday?" Again, her answer was "Yes!" He then asked: "Do you read your Bible and pray everyday?" Again she said, "Yes!" By now her curiosity was very much aroused. The little lad sighed with relief and said, "Will you please hold my money while I go in swimming?" That kid was smart. Belief should always go with behavior. Does yours? 5. Believers must be wise in communicating absolutes in a postmodern world. Jesus warned us, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16). Some weeks back Aaron and I attended the John McCain Rally in Racine. I wanted Aaron to have an opportunity to see someone who might be president and have some exposure to American politics firsthand. The rally was a town hall meeting and Senator McCain was taking questions from the crowd. Early on during the question and answer portion, one man in the balcony asked a series of rambling questions about on religion. He quoted from the book of Revelation and asked Senator McCain if he thought biblical prophecies were coming true. McCain responded by saying he believed in an America founded as Judeo-Christian. He then asked McCain to answer his question better and the audience starting yelling at him to give up the mike. Ultimately, the audience cheered when a volunteer snatched the microphone from him. But this man continued to yell from the balcony as others in attendance shouted for him to sit down. He finally sat down and was not kicked out. And as a Christian, I wanted to crawl under my chair. Over the years I’ve attended and even testified at a number of legislative hearings. Folks, God’s Word today is not considered relevant in the public arena. But the consequences of not heeding God’s Word are obvious. That means that I don’t have to quote Scripture to speak against homosexual marriage. A lost world gives me overwhelming amounts of data for the horrific results of redefining the family. I don’t have to quote Scripture when it comes to abortion. The emotional, psychological and physical trauma to women speaks for itself. As Christians who hold to absolutes, when we speak in the public arena, we must be wise. 6. Moral absolutes can only help us in this temporary world. Martin Luther said it best, "The law is a whip that drives us to the cross." It’s vital that we understand what even the most important moral laws can and cannot do. Scripture teaches that while the law can show us what is right, that same law can never make us good. We may seek to live by absolutes, and that behavior may even make us feel morally superior, but there’s a vast difference between knowing and keeping the law or absolutes. God gave us absolutes to reveal the extent of the gulf between ourselves and the holy God who made us for Himself. Absolutes or the law were never meant to be something that we can keep in order to earn or deserve the forgiveness and eternal life of God, Gal. 2:16 (p. 824). Absolutes show us our need for God's forgiveness and redemption. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourself, it is the gift of God. Not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). The same is true on a societal level. Absolutes restrain lawlessness and sin, but will never solve man's deepest need: a redemptive relationship with a holy God. You and I are to be salt and light. God, though, has not called us to reform society. He’s called us to lead sin's victims into regeneration. True societal change is a direct by-product of evangelization. Conclusion: In a godless world we often feel helpless, insignificant and outgunned in the culture war. What's the child of God to do? Three Thoughts: a) Be wise – Remember, Jesus exhorted us to "be wise as serpents but harmless as doves." Sometimes we as believers do the most damage to our own cause. We cannot mimic the world's methods if we’re going to have an impact. Every rights group is known for its rage and its shouts of protest. We need to respond with the small still voice of our God. We need to be wise on how we speak out. We must be known for Christian civility as we talked about a few weeks ago. And we need to also be wise on when we speak out. There are things that I may feel strongly about as a citizen, but they are not "Christian" issues. For example, as a church we have absolutely no position on new drilling for oil. It’s not a spiritual issue. We need to choose our battles. Some believers want to fight over every issue and die on every hill. b) Be Involved - Romans 13 informs us that we have responsibility as Christian citizens. Government is ordained of God. We have a duty to God and our government to be involved. That includes paying taxes, voting and speaking out when there’s a need to speak out. Frequently Christians only speak out when a legislator does something they think is wrong or the issue is critical. Our elected officials need to also hear from us when they’re doing what’s right. We need to build redemptive friendships with those in authority. That’s why we’re having our God & Government Sunday in a few weeks, to give you that opportunity to build relationships with them. We’re commanded to pray for them and they need to know that we do. c) Stay Focused on the Primary Mission - It is easy to make the mistake of thinking that our culture's problems are political ones. They're not. They’re spiritual problems that require a spiritual solution. God's solution for this culture is redemption not reformation. We’re the communicators of the plan. But it's the domino effect. It happens one at a time. God designed absolutes, not to limit us, but to protect us. God's standards are protective fences for our good. But you and I must make a conscience choice to stay within these protective fences of God's standards and encourage our society to do so as well. After the 1999 Columbine Massacre in Littleton, Colorado, someone wrote this: “Dear God, Why didn't you save the school children in Littleton, Colorado? Sincerely, Concerned Student Dear Concerned Student, I am not allowed in schools. Sincerely, God” And then they added this, “Let's see, I think it started when Madeline Murray O'Hare complained she didn't want any prayer in our schools. And we said, OK...Then, someone said you better not read the Bible in school, the Bible that says "thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself." And we said, OK...Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem.  And we said, an expert should know what he's talking about so we won't spank them anymore...Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. And the school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued. And we accepted their reasoning... Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents. And we said, that's a grand idea...Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want, so they can have all the fun they desire, and we   won't have to tell their parents they got them at school. And we said, that's another great idea...Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. And we said, it doesn't matter what anybody, including the President, does in private as long as we have jobs and the economy is good...And then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body. And we said, we have no problem with that...And someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then stepped further still by making them available on the Internet. And we said, everyone's entitled to free speech...And the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that   promote profanity, violence and illicit sex...And let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes...and it has no adverse effect and nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead...And now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, classmates or even themselves.” Someone’s Morality will always be legislated. As Bible-believers, as stewards of our American freedom, we need to do what we can to make certain that absolutes and God’s transcendent values still set the standard in the public square.