Writing Our Own Moral Code (Redux)

At The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (of the Southern Baptist Convention), a recent blog post details the "Six principles of a Jesus-centered moral order." The post is an excerpt from a recent book co-authored by David Kinnaman, the president of Barna Group, a Christian research and communications company.

The piece notes that, "in the twentieth century, more and more people began to see Christian morality as standing in the way of a new moral code: the morality of self-fulfillment. Throwing off burdensome traditional mores, people began to imagine life without a bothersome God standing watch." The post also reveals new research that "highlights the extent to which Americans pledge allegiance to the new moral code, which can be summed up in six guiding principles."

Barna research reveals our "New Moral Code:" 

As we sadly see, this "morality of self fulfillment," otherwise known--as I noted last August (referencing philosopher Michael Novak)--as the "theology of self," has crept into the church. As I also pointed out, this "morality of self fulfillment" or "theology of self" is nothing new. As Genesis chapter 3 reveals, the desire to "be like God" is nearly as old as humanity itself. 

What is new, at least for the United States of America, is that such a wicked philosophy has now become deeply embedded in U.S. law. To a great extent, this is the result of the corrupt and foolish efforts of American courts. 

In Lawrence vs. Texas in 2003, while declaring state laws against homosexual behavior (sodomy) unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that, "The petitioners [Lawrence and Garner] are entitled to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime."

In his dissent, Justice Scalia correctly concluded that, "Today's opinion is the product of a Court, which is the product of a law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct.... [T]he Court has taken sides in the culture war, departing from its role of assuring, as neutral observer, that the democratic rules of engagement are observed."

On November 18, 2003, just four-and-a-half months after the Lawrence decision, the Judicial Supreme Court of Massachusetts ruled in favor of legalized same-sex "marriage. Thus Massachusetts became the first state in the U.S. to grant marital rights to same-sex couples. In her majority decision, the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts court, Margaret Marshal, referenced Lawrence: "Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code."

As I wrote in March of 2013, "mandating our own moral code" is exactly what supporters of the homosexual agenda, and others like-minded, seek to do. Nearly a quarter of a century ago, ruling in favor of the "right" to kill children in the womb (Planned Parenthood v. Casey), Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." (Thus, no one should have been surprised at his perverse ruling on marriage.)

If Kennedy's above conclusion is not "mandating our own moral code" then nothing is.

What's more, as we debate the moral issues in our culture, in their lust to ignore the eternal truths of our Creator, liberals have long bemoaned the "legislating of morality." Such a conclusion foolishly ignores the fact that, all law is rooted in someone's idea of morality. We either going to be governed by the morality of God, or the "morality of self fulfillment." Americans must simply decide, by whose morality we wished to be governed. 

Copyright 2016, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com