check out this article on commondreams.org about americans' views on morality. pretty interesting. especially the last chart at the end of the article "WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING IS THE MOST URGENT MORAL PROBLEM IN AMERICAN CULTURE?"
according to this survey, for liberals, the two most pressing moral problems in american culture are "greed/materialism" (32.6%) and "poverty/economic justice" (61.4%!). for conservatives they are "abortion" (30%) and "same-sex marriage" (36.5%).
i'm assuming that most mainline evangelical christians probably fit into the "conservative" category. (someone please correct me if i'm wrong here.) this is really strange because Jesus talked way more about greed/materialism and poverty, or doing justice to our neighbors than these other two issues. granted abortion wasn't a widespread, easily accesible, and medically safe option then. but roman emperors had young boys in their "harems." and i'm sure sexuality was just as charged a subject 2,000 years ago as it is now.
i'm not saying here that one moral issue is more important than the other...it's just a bit disturbing, based on this survey, that conservatives (and therefore most mainline evangelical christians) are apparently only barely concerned with issues like poverty/economic justice (6%!).
what else is weird is that generally speaking, conservatives who would say they are "pro-life" or support a "culture of life," in relation to abortion, also favor the death penalty. what is this all about? i really don't get it. is it really true that the murder of a "sinner" is justified? what ever happened to "he who is without sin" casting the first stone?
i'm sure there will be a firestorm of comments after this one, even from people i don't know. i don't pretend to have a monopoly on morality or the answers. let's learn from each other. let's speak the truth in love. bring it on...
4 comments:
ryan,
interesting article. i definitely agree with your implication that we, as believers (and particularly those of us who are evangelicals), should be very careful about aligning ourselves with one particular party as if everything that party values (or doesn't value) is correct. it would be an answer to prayer to see candidates who were as passionately concerned about the poor as they were about pro-life issues, and vice-versa.
the poll can be misleading, however, if we fail to realize that the question was asked concerning the MOST URGENT (both words are important) issue in American culture. most people are going to think of the most tangible contemporary problem that is leading America in a wrong direction. the ultimate biblical answer would be sin in general, but in terms of its effects seen in abortion and marriage, these are the specific battleground issues of our day. what causes the battle over abortion and marriage are the differing answers to the more simple question: 'are these moral problems at all?' few people would disagree that poverty should be alleviated and greed eliminated. thus, i think some conservatives have emphasized (at least in this poll) these two issues as the most urgent at this particular time because of the acute ignorance in the culture of their moral relevance. of course we should not treat just the symptoms but the cause - telling people about the destruction of sin. if we do that, it will create a worldview in which poverty also becomes an important issue.
before i write a book, i want to bring up one last thing. there is an important difference between abortion and capital punishment. of course the most obvious one is that the Bible forbids one (via Psalm 139, etc.) and mandates the other (Gen 9, etc.). the key to understanding how this is possible comes from reflection on why human life is sacred. its sacredness comes from the fact that God makes mankind in His image, which means a number of things but particularly it means that we are God's representatives on earth. when someone does something to one of these image bearers, they consequently do it to God as well. that is why the captial punishment clause in Gen 9 is grounded in the fact that we are made in the image of God. such punishment befalls those who have made a willfull decision to sin. abortion is not punishment against those who willfully sin but a crime against the innocent (i.e. not willfully sinning). so the Bible actually sees capital punishment as guarding the sanctity of life - protecting God's image from defamation. i don't think that John 8:1-11 reverses this mandate at all. rather, Jesus (directly referring to Deut 13:9; 17:7 and Lev 24:14) "faces them with the full and final seriousness of the law, not so as to lay down conditions that would make all human administration of justice impossible [e.g. capital punishment], but in order to confront all who, ignoring their own sin, *want* to judge and condemn others without mercy." the point is not the wrongness of capital punishment, but the zealous desire to condemn others without realizing the weight of your own sin.
-chris
"the point is not the wrongness of capital punishment, but the zealous desire to condemn others without realizing the weight of your own sin."
i agree with you here chris, but could you with a clean conscience execute someone? i don't feel like i could do that.
and then there's the possiblity of wrongfully executing someone who was in fact innocent. i heard an interview with a guy on npr who was the first death row inmate completely exonerated due to dna evidence. not only was he acquited, but based on the evidence, they even found the true murderer.
couple great movies on this subject by the way...dead man walking (the book is even better) and life of david gale. love you bro. thanks for your thoughtful comments on my blog.
nate...i do think it's weirder that liberals (if i can make a sweeping generalization) would offer life to a mass murderer but not a fetus. nonetheless, i don't think it justifies either, as i'm sure you feel.
I was recently talking to one of my friends from school about political linguistics. There are people who are paid to create and manipulate language to help push political agendas. George Lakoff is a linguist in California...
"Lakoff is trying to teach liberals what conservatives have known for years: the skill of defining, or 'framing,' issues in a way that makes it next to impossible for the other side to contradict you. By consciously and cleverly framing the terms used in the debate, you define the debate itself. 'Clear Skies' and 'partial-birth abortion' aren’t just catchphrases; they’re brilliantly self-contained arguments."
-from "How to Talk Like a Conservative"
It troubled me that the term "moral issues" was being thrown around so much as the election unfolded. In most cases, it seemed like term was designed to narrowly include only the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage. But as a generic term, "moral issues" can obviously mean much more. I was glad to see something that actually addressed this discrepancy, acknowledging that materialism and poverty are also valid moral issues.
So thanks for sharing this.
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