White Washed Tombs
I've been watching with interest the debate between DJ and Nossie about political correctness. The difficulty I see with 'political correctness' is that it is an unenforceable attempt to legislate attitudes. Whilst some of it is to be commended there are some things that come through that seem, in the name of tolerance, to be intolerant towards other peoples views and beliefs. So it is fundamentally flawed from the start. In this issue, there is also the question of the nature of truth - we do not have a universally accepted, absolute standard of right or wrong in this nation. Therefore any attempt to politically correct thinking and doing is crazy, because not everyone agrees with the intended aim!
However, Nossie and DJ are doing a far better job of discussing this than I could. Hobbs has contributed, with an interesting comment for which he has invited discussion. He states:
"Ultimately, you cannot legislate against hatred any more than you can legislate that people should love one another, or should give to the poor. That is an issue of the heart, an issue bigger than the Juristiction (sic) of the Law, it's an issue of the human condition of sinfulness..."
Upon reading this comment, I agree with is. As a Christian I must, otherwise I am rejecting the work of Jesus to fulfill the Old Covenant with its external works to please God. Jesus himself is recorded as saying by Matthew that the Pharisees had an appearance of righteousness because of their rigid and dutiful observation of the Law. But he also challenged them about their hypocrisy later on, concerning the disparity between their external legal obedience and internal heart towards God and men. So spiritually, God is more interested in our hearts than our external actions. However, this doesn't mean we can do whatever we like as Christians. For if our hearts belong to God, then our thoughts, words and deeds will be affected. And we will become more and more like Jesus as we mature spiritually. God is not into legislating correct behaviour out of his children using fear of punishment, but is into changing us by kind, loving persuasion and tender discipline.
I agree with Hobbs comment. I don't believe we can legislate morality. Therefore I don't believe we can legislate Christian morality. This raises a quandary for me though. How do we educate, encourage and enforce morality? And what do we mean by 'morality?'
All of us have beliefs. Whether religious or philosophical - or a mixture of the two - we all have personal morals and views on social ethics. We all have things we believe are right and wrong. And no doubt, we all agree and disagree on many.
Lets imagine a horrendous scenario for a moment. Imagine I become British Prime Minister. Imagine parliamentary democracy implodes, and the fates conspire to make me the despotic ruler of the United Kingdom. I would be free to impose my will on the people, and my word would be law. Imagine that for a moment, and shudder.
I would consider my ethics Biblical and Christian. I could impose my interpretation of New Testament morality on the population. This would change many things for example. I am anti-abortion. I believe adultery and sex outside of marriage to be wrong. I don't believe pornography is a healthy thing. I am conservative in the area of homosexuality. I don't believe that any other faith outside of New Testament Christianity is correct. I have no problem with smacking of children, but I do have issues with drugs and smoking. I could go on. Being British PM, I could impose all these views, and appropriate legislation, on the populous. Would I?
Not a chance.
We don't like doing what we don't want to do. And if someone doesn't subscribe to the same set of values as me, then two things will happen. Firstly, some people would rebel either openly or in secret against these new laws. Secondly, some people would observe these commands, but with a resentment and disdain in their heart. You see, I know the human heart. Because I have one. I'm both of those types of people. Rebelling openly, rebelling in secret and observing certain things when I don't really want to.
Do I think censorship is a good thing? No. As much I am disturbed by some of the stuff in all forms of media, I would rather people reject it themselves then someone impose morality on them.
Do I think adultery should be illegal? No. Because why just stop with adultery? There are nine other Commandments - 612 actually. To be consistent scripturally, we need to continue with the illegality of murder. And stealing. But add to the list lying. Coveting. Losing your temper. Unforgiveness. Where does it stop?
Do I believe in Evolution? No. But what is better - for people to decide themselves, or to be told what to believe - which means they don't really believe it, and are merely recanting it.
Imposing a Christian morality on a non christian populous is foolish I believe - to use Jesus' words, I'd create a multitude of white washed tombs. Which leads misrepresents God and leads peoples hearts further from Him.
Having freedom of heart - free will - means we have freedom of speech, and freedom of action. And God gave us free will as a divine gift. He could have just made us automatons, robots who would have stayed away from serpents and fruit, and lived in blissful ignorance in Eden for eternity. But no, the Father didn't. Why did he give us free will?
God wants to be worshipped. And to worship someone - to make them the centre of your heart - requires a whole hearted choice to be made. Being programmed to worship someone is equivalent to being forced to love someone - its an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms.
We were given free will to worship God, or not. Because only in the choice is it genuine worship. In this sense, you could say sin is the polar opposite of worship. Worship is making God the centre of our hearts and pleasing Him. Sin is making us the centre of our hearts and pleasing ourselves.
So coming back full circle to Hobbs question, I agree with him. We cannot legislate morality. This raises concerns for me over the politicalisation of Christianity. But more importantly, it gives me an insight into the loving kindness of a God who wants us for ourselves, not our slavery.
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4 Comments:
As I mentioned on Hobbs' blog, the point of a law is not necessarily to change attitudes, but to punish those who exhibit negative actions towards others as a result of those attitudes.
It doesn't change anything other than protecting people - if someone knows they're going to be fined £10,000 for saying such and such a group should all die, then they'll think twice before saying it. They may still hate the group in question, but then those who are prepared to make public statements like that in the first place aren't exactly going to later see what they've done is wrong.
Forgive me for being so blatantly rude for suggesting that I believe there are parts of the NT which are lost on Christians - because they don't have a complete or full understanding of Judaism. Therefore Christiasn miss certain nuances and even jibes in the text, aimed at the Jewish reader. One now well-known example is, I am able to read references to Jesus as "the son of God" without batting an eyelid. Why? It's a Jewish concept to start with.
This, I believe, is one less well known (in the sense that the NT doesn't actually provide the Pharisees rationale - the Jewish reader, of course, wouldn't need that explanation) debate between the Pharisees and Jesus - the former held externalities have an effect on the inside (i.e. what someone says and does will affect how they feel about those things they say and do) whereas Jesus said the opposite, "it is what comes out of the mouth, not that which goes into the mouth, that defiles" - i.e. the internal dictates the externalities. How you feel, will dictate what you do.
As you mention Ant, Jesus felt the Pharisaic view was very hypocritical.
Both views are right.
They both have different times and places, however. It is the Pharisaic view, not Jesus'/Christianity's view which sufficiently explains how it is that the bible can legislate something like "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul" - It is not a "you either do love God in your heart or you don't" situation. It's a "if you do, great! If you don't, this is how to fix it..." thing. And how do you fix it? With that which Jesus found so wrong: words and actions can change inner feelings. Therefore, by simply doing the law, you will grow a more permanent appreciation for it and God.
In our context, by refraining from making statements of hate, perhaps the person will come to an appreciation of why it's wrong to do so in the first place...
This is in no way a carte blanche to therefore prescribe whatever one will over everyone else. There are other philosophies within Judaism to supplement it, such as free will and equality through difference and tolerance and respect, all of which dictate that other people can do things I, as a religious Jew, cannot - and they won't go to hell for it. And they may very well end up in heaven for it too. That a non-Jew can get to heaven easier than a Jew in Judaic thought is quite interesting. As Ant said, it isn't a privilege, it's a - sometimes unwanted - responsibility.
Thus endeth my thoughts (well they continue, but thus endeth what I'm going to write).
I've never been politically correct.
I'd like to see people of other races, other religions, other political standings try being me and see how they like it. What's it like to be a middle class, Christian white woman today? What's it like trying not to accidentally offend people?
I think a better thing to shoot for would be 'social correctness,' which by my superior (ha) definition would not mean treating everyone equally, because we are not equal in personality, needs, desires. But we should treat everyone with equal respect and love. We are equal in value.
Political correctness doesn't do this. Poltical correctness seeks to elevate some people who have perhaps been downtrodden in the past in order to 'make up for' what we have done to them. This is ridiculous. Political correctness can sometimes form its own reverse racism.
I'm not gonna go on because I hate this kind of topic ROFL I hate it because so often everyone (on both sides) chooses to misunderstand everyone else.
I love people of all races from all countries all religions all beliefs. We are not different--we just happen to be 'fearfully and wonderfully made' by a creative God. It would be boring if we were all the same!
PS Dj you are right about the NT. I am pretty ignorant of Jewish history/culture outside what I know from the Bible. I do know a little more than the average person, I think, from classes and sermons in college. We had a good session once with a "converted Jew" who taught us a lot about Jewish culture. It was quite fascinating.
God says we should "love thy neighbour" so, i agree i dont think we can legislate christian morality, like margo said does not matter rase, culture,beliefs...God is love and we should love one another , yeh even as christians we can agree on things and disagree on things, but we still love each other.
On the free will, i think i need to study it ALOT more, i put it up for discussion on my blog , but i dont know enough to comment on whether i beleive we have free will as such, as i cant find a scripture in the bible that says we have ?, can you help me on that one?
We don't actually have total 'free will'. It is a misnomer.
For instance, we are totally unable to make a choice for God until He has first touched us.
Those who will be saved were chosen before time began.
I believe we have limited 'free will' and I know that many will say that is not 'free will', but they have to contend with what the Bible actually teaches as opposed to what they wish to impose on it.
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