Recapturing a Complete Sense of Morality

Over a year ago I wrote that I began to deconstruct out of the Republican Party during the Clinton Administration. I feared that many Republicans, often those with the most public claims of faith in Christ, were using power not on behalf of others but on behalf of themselves, their own gain and the gain of the GOP. While I found the actions of Clinton repulsive, it seemed to me that most of the efforts of the Republican Party during that time were driven by politics and not morality.

Sexual indiscretions hold such sway in our culture, particularly among religious conservatives. Yet I often wonder why we do not find other immorality equally disgraceful. A vast array of key Republicans are under investigation, indictment or have been convicted of significant crimes. This list includes, but is certainly not limited to the former Majority Leader of the House Tom Delay, the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the previously A-list DC lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the former head of the Christian Coalition Ralph Reed - the list of investigated, indicted or convicted Republicans goes on and on and on and on.

Now, with the scandal over Ted Haggard, arguably the most influential evangelical in politics, suddenly everyone is asking questions of morality. They should be, mind you. While God's grace is rich and complete and covers a multitude of sins, including more of my own sins than I would care to recount, Christians have an obligation to hold each other accountable. What I am questioning here is why the Church is deeply shocked that a pastor and NAE President visited a prostitute of the same gender, but has not been deeply scandalized by vote tampering, racketeering, money laundering, lying to grand juries and treason?

And the crimes just mentioned are the easy ones to identify, because they violate US federal law. But what about those sins that should violate our deeper sense of Christian morality? Why, for example, has the Church only recently begun to abandon support for the Iraq War, now that it appears we cannot win? Why were the first two years of death and destruction not enough to cause us to repent, and why are we not sorry that the shared Judeo-Christian value of seeking counsel and advice was not enough to keep us from invading Iraq in the first place?

Further, no one asks whether we are providing food and drink to those in need, or healing the sick. We are mostly scandalized when someone commits a sexual sin. And yet, if you are someone who reads the Bible for guidance, it would seem to me that you would rank not caring for the poor at least as high as visiting a prostitute and buying meth. Consider this passage from Ezekiel 16:

"This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy."

Not caring for the poor, not sharing resources with those in need - these were the kinds of sins for which God's people got carried off in punishment. In the case of Sodom the city was destroyed because of those kinds of sins.

My prayer is that the Church can begin to see the broad range of moral issues we face, and act accordingly. I pray that we can recapture a complete sense of morality. That we can begin to see pride, excess of food and prosperous ease as at least as sinful as visiting a hooker.

Comments

[Will]

I just removed some fairly lengthy comments that were posted here. I removed them not because I don't wish to have a dialogue but because the comments wandered pretty far away from the issue I was trying to address in this post. If you want to read the opinions of this individual, please visit the site of Kalki Gaur.

[relevantgirl]

As I posted on my blog, I'm more saddened by the state of the church in the first place than I am surprised by Haggard's alleged indiscretions.

I've always considered myself a republican, ever since I met Jesus, primarily because of the right to life issue, but lately, I'm seeing that it's an inaccurate label of me. I'm independent because I can no longer reconcile the Republican's obsession with power. (And I'm not saying the Democrates aren't obsessed. The nature of politics is power).

And tied to that power is the mighty dollar. Even in the church, there is this amazing fascination with money. I don't see this in Jesus' life. Nor do I believe this fascination with materialism (dare I say idol) is diametrically opposed to Kingdom living.

So this is a rambly post. Sorry. Micah 6:8 is pretty clear. And so is Jesus. We are to love this world, the people in it, without an obsession with our own reputation, our own lifestyle "needs," our own sense of personal or corporate power.

[Will]

Well said, Mary.

[susan]

You touched upon some very important things in this post, which I wholeheartedly agree with, and you did it very eloquently. My hat is off to you.

Evangelicals appear to only care about and are obsessed by sexual issues when it comes to politics, which is incredibly narrow and repressive. Gays and abortion seem to be the only items on the list that matter, and the Republican Party has used this to their advantage in getting votes from Christians. Social justice, working toward peace ~ why aren't these priorities?

[ShariMac]

You make some very interesting points, Will. I actually had been thinking this week that one of the problems within the contemporary evangelical church is an overemphasis on morality. But, in light of your comments, I realize what I really mean is an overemphasis on OTHER PEOPLE'S morality.

Put another way: perhaps the church would be better off not worrying about "morality" so much, but concentrating instead on matters of spirituality (some might say holiness) and justice. We may be talking semantics here -- "morality," "ethcis," "spirituality," and "justice" all have different meanings to different people. In any case, there's a lot here to think about. Thanks for the thoughtful post.

[sonja]

I believe that Jesus handled just this sort of situation and his response was apt, "He who is without sin may cast the first stone." I notice several things in that statement. Jesus didn't qualify the term "sin" ... just the person who was without sin, any sin of any sort, could cast the first stone. Already the metaphorical stones are flying .... coming from the Pastor's former friends. So very sad.

[Will]

Susan,

Right. It might be interesting to ask if the world is more just after 12 years of GOP control. This would include asking what kinds of people would be formed by the imitation of Christ and the standards of scripture.

[Will]

Shari,

It is semantics, isn't it? That is why it might be valuable to take some time and ask how scripture, the model of Jesus and the historic teachings of the Church actually speaks to the question of what it means to be a moral people. Thanks for your thoughts.

[Will]

Sonja,

Yeah, it is quite sad. Already the memory removal machine is at work. I am going to be posting more on that today.

[Dr. X.]

Will,

I appreciate both the insight and the integrity behind your observations today.

Thank you-