Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Why #MoralityMatters?



We are finally at the end of the longest and worst political season of my lifetime. It has caused me continually to examine how we got to this place. I've done sincere introspection on what I've said & done over my life, and who I've supported politically. Everything I've ever believed the last 30 years has come into question. I've done more research on the history of the pro-life movement, conservative politicians, and the GOP then ever before. I have strongly believed for last 30 years that one political party was immoral, and that blinded me to follow "the true lesser of two evils". The veils have been removed from my eyes to see that there are three lies of the past 30+ years. First is that morality cannot be legislated, second is that "church" leaders have moral authority, and third is that GOP has moral superiority.

Morality is what defines a society, and it is the principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and evil. Many say that we can't legislate morality, but of course we make laws every day based on what is right and wrong (morality). The question is always who says what is right or wrong, and how a society determines what is in the best interest of the society as a whole. We have become a society where truth is relative, and only the politically correct social justice warriors determine what is right from wrong. It's the secularist that make up our government right now, and where does their morality come from? What guides our morals as believers in Jesus Christ though? Does our morality define our politics or our politics define our morality? We must be guided by the Bible alone.  Our society is falling apart just as the Bible has predicted, because we've lost the idea that #MoralityMatters. We've seen so many hashtags that try to state whose life matters more or less. No life can truly matter if there is no morality guiding our decisions & our character. Whether it's the life of the unborn, the life of those killed in mass shootings, or those on death row.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and for the gospel will save it. What does it profit (matter) a man to gain the wholeworld, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? Mark 8:35-37
First lie that I have believed is that morality cannot be legislated. Irony is that there is a quote by MLK Jr. saying this very thing.
Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless. Martin Luther King Jr.
Does this mean that I believe MLK Jr. was lying? Quite the contrary as I quote him quite often. I believe his premise is right in that it's our behavior that is regulated more than our hearts.  I think he's talking about individual's morality, but when we look at the fact that morals are principles that guide what is right & wrong as a whole for society, then it is the legislation that creates morality in how we behave. Legislation created by man teaches us just as the law of God does that we are sinners who need our behavior regulated.
So the Law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3:24
We can take the civil war as an example of morality being legislated. Many in the South were fighting for their right to have immoral law of slavery in their states. When they were defeated, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it was no longer moral to have slavery in our Nation. He gave the emancipation proclamation to proclaim that January 1, 1863. Hearts didn't change, but the principle that all men were created equal said that all men were free and this is who we are as a whole NATION. The Thirteenth Amendment was passed and ratified almost exactly 3 years later. Slavery is now understood to be evil and those who say otherwise are now shamed. I know we are still not a perfect people in understanding that ALL men are created equal, but for this example we have abolished slavery as a popular government sanctioned institution. I pray one day in my lifetime that the genocide of abortion would no longer be a popular government sanctioned institution as well!

Second lie that I've believed all my adult life is that the "Church" & it's leaders have moral authority. I've often listened to them, & referred to them in order to make moral decisions. When I say "Church", I'm talking about it in a more general sense rather than those I choose as spiritual authority at my local church. I've listened to James Dobson for how to raise children, Rick Warren on how to live my life with purpose, and Joyce Meyers on how to win the battle over my mind. I reached for their books before I reached for the Bible to guide me. I'm not saying these are bad outright, but they are when we look to them as our moral authority, especially before the Bible. The Bible alone is our moral authority on every subject, and there is no moral authority that supersedes that!

There is a part B to the second lie, and that is that the "Church" at large is the moral authority of our society. The sad part is the "Church" has ceased to play a part in determining what is right and wrong altogether. We can blame society, hollywood or many other factors for that, but ultimately the church bears full responsibility for our society's moral decay. There was the judgmental church in the 60's, greedy televangelist in 80's, the seeker-sensitive church in 90's, and the complacent prosperity preaching gospel today.  The church has lost it's relevance in the culture today, and this election is but a symptom of how the church has lost it's way. The "Church" has become about prosperity and building great buildings rather than building the Kingdom of God. We are but a stain on our society rather than that city on a hill. We have lost our first love of Christ & His Word. The "Church" is more fearful of losing the ability to say "Merry Christmas", and it's tax status that it is about souls going to Hell!

God and His Word are our soul authority, and we need to stop screaming for a king as we already have the King of Kings, His Word, & the Holy Spirit to guide us, protect us, and LEAD us. We act like we're still waiting for our Savior & crying out like the Jews did for a strong political CONQUEROR! Our FEAR is big, and our god is small to the watching WORLD. We are more fearful of a political figure than we are of standing before OUR righteous Creator!

The third and final lie that I've believed over the years is that the GOP is morally superior. I have believed this because the Democrats are the ones that support unlimited abortion, and don't have the family values. What really solidified their moral deficiency for me was when they booed God in their platform, and Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel. I really thought they were morally corrupt at that point, and I was just like Jonah waiting for the fire and brimstone to come down on their Convention. This political season has caused me to have a serious examination of everything I've known to be true about morality and politics. I've been undone. I've been introspective and reflective of EVERYTHING I've believed and stood for. What I've found through researching, introspection, and reflection has removed all veils from my eyes. I've been extremely repentant for my haughty attitude. I've discovered that in fact the GOP as a whole is just as morally reprehensible as the Democrats, but they're in fact liars and hypocrites.

The GOP is just as much about revisionist history as they scream that the Democrats are on civil rights. They in fact are the PARTY that has been pro-abortionist while pandering to the pro-life movement. By the way, you are not pro-life if you stick a bumper sticker on your car, have babies, and vote for Republicans. If you haven't worked to help save a life, working at Pregnancy Centers, donated, or have worked to pass legislation then you are nothing but a poser! I challenge everyone to look up who wrote the majority decision for Roe vs. Wade, and for a similar decision Doe vs. Bolton.  GOP had the majority to overturn Roe vs. Wade, but didn't do it in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey.  Look them up for yourself in the links provided. There were 5 out of 7 who were Republican nominees in the Roe vs. Wade decision.  It was a Republican nominee that wrote the majority decision and even Ginsburg says was a horribly written decision.
Roe, I believe would have been more acceptable as a judicial decision if it had not gone beyond a ruling on the extreme statute before the Court...Heavy-handed judicial intervention was difficult to justify and appears to have provoked, not resolved, conflict. - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
In this election season you'll have to forgive me if I don't adhere to the crisis of the SCOTUS, and that it's the GOP candidate that alone can save us. They have no morally superior authority on their own much less to believe a pathological liar they allowed to be the nominee will actually do what he says he will do. Where was that crisis in the primary? Especially after Scalia died? No, I'm sorry if I don't fall in line to the pandering once more. No party has any moral superiority, especially that has shown a disdain for believers to tell us the truth about their morally apprehensible past.

Only One person is morally superior, only one book has moral authority, and there is only one way for us get back to a moral society, and that is to submit to both. Our feelings, our hopes, and our dreams don't matter when we are seeking what matters morally, and only character and truth matter in selecting a moral leader. There is only one dream we all should have and that is where Martin Luther King Jr. had it exactly right. A dream that our children....
will one day live in a Nation where they will be not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. -Martin Luther King Jr. Aug. 28, 1963