The world in its infancy knew only one God. He created and ordered the world and all was very good. He walked the earth and everything hummed with worship. But the sky darkened with the devil’s lie, and Adam believed that he too could be a god (Genesis 3:5). Man reached for the forbidden fruit, sunk in his teeth, heard the snap of its flesh giving way, and he swallowed it—hook, line, and sinker. Since that very moment there have been two authorities at odds: God and man, theism versus humanism, God’s rightful authority versus humanity’s usurpatious designs.
No matter how many layers of complexity and nuance one adds to this simple description, it remains basically accurate. The discrepancies in the public arena are exacerbated by the differences in these two foundations. If one believes in God, they will look to Him for objective truth and revelation about the human condition. If one believes that there is no God or that he is completely uninvolved in human affairs, they will conclude that we are on our own and any solutions to the human condition are going to have to come from us. Plainly, these competing religious postures have political implications.
Politics and religion will always intertwine. Humanism is a religion (no matter how much atheists claim it isn’t) in that it is a system of belief that requires a philosophical posture. Religious or irreligious categories inescapably bleed into the public square. Certainly, religious believers can assert that politicians must be honest because the Bible says so. Do believers have to concoct some secular reason to justify truth-telling? What if such secular reasoning is not strong enough to compel individuals (or politicians) to tell the truth?
As Neuhaus has argued, public life must be informed by some set of ethics. Humanistic ethics are always only a social convention. They are ultimately grounded in the opinion of human beings. Nazis believed Jew-hating to be a virtue, and they were voted into power—legally. They legislated their version of morality. Were they wrong? Of course, they were! But they are only shown to be wrong when judged by objective Christian standards.
The concept of “contemporary morality,” is in vogue. The idea that all morality is a social convention erases any idea of objective moral standards. Social ethics grounded in secular humanism will always be subjective. Better hope your personally preferred party stays in power by whatever means necessary or you could be in serious trouble.
By removing religion from the public square, there is no longer anything transcendent to prevent politics from becoming a god unto itself. Not only does this destroy religious expression, but it also destroys politics because nothing higher than political power is believed to exist. What should be a marketplace of ideas becomes a mob war of various parties vying for a monopoly share of government. All that remains is an oligarchy of nihilists – politics descends to rats in a cage, devouring and being devoured.
The political elite grasp for power and then jealously retain it. George Orwell wrote constantly about the temptations the State has toward totalitarianism. In his novel 1984, Orwell explains State power grabbing with the admissions of its main statist representative, O’Brian. O’Brian says, “Always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever."
Christianity, in contrast, is grounded on the objective revelation of God’s character as revealed in the Bible. Nefarious men have used the institutions of Christianity to further personal power, but these goals are illegitimate and not properly Christian. Jesus did not grab for power; He did not allow Satan to gain the world for Him in trade (Matthew 4:8-10). Rather, Jesus surrendered His life as a ransom. God saves those who believe Him and judges those who reject His rightful place of authority.
The terms of God’s covenant remain unchanged yesterday, today, and forever: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). This is as unalterable as the foundations of the universe, as immutable as 5+2=7. Man, for his part, continues to deify himself. He rises, shakes his fist toward heaven and utters in Milton’s famous words (Paradise Lost, lines 105-111):
All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?
That Glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me.”
Man exults in his own rebellious power. He does not have authority to contradict the creator, yet he has the ability, for now, to do much as he pleases. What pleases human beings is to play at being God. Psalm 2:1-6 says:
The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together
against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
‘Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.’
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
‘I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.’”
The foundation of a virtuous public square then must be based on God’s unchanging character. When good behavior and action becomes habitual, it becomes character. Habituated good character is virtue. In the social confusion beginning in the wake of WWI, Western society began to reject character as the most important possession of an individual and especially politicians. Performance ousted character as primary. Today, it seems easily accepted that the personal character of politicians (Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, for example) can be deeply flawed, and yet they are elected because Americans care mostly about results.
In a results-oriented schema, the divide between the humanist and the theist becomes even more grossly conspicuous. Since Jesus Christ orders the universe (even though creation is at odds with him at this moment) and the basis of virtue is God’s character, let us hold ourselves and those who supposedly represent us to that high standard. There can be no greatness without character.
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