15“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24:15 (NASB95)
"Check mark" by All Reverse Mortgage is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Across the world, news reports are in about Iran, its morality police, and the death of a young woman named Mahsa Amini. If you aren't aware of this story, Amini was caught out in public wearing her hijab incorrectly by the Iranian "guidance patrols," a subset of their national police force. She was taken into custody, taken to a police station where she "fell into a coma," and on September 16th she died. Since that time, riots, protests, and attacks against government installations across the country have been common. To date over 200 people have been killed in these riots and protests.
The Iranian government is a theocracy based on Islamic law called Shariah. In Christian terms in America, it would be as if we took Old Testament Law and forced everyone to live by those rules. In Iran, they enforce these rules harshly but like any other religion, the particulars of the What and the How are sometimes vague. In Iran's case, there "morality police" tend to interpret the law very broadly. This lack of consistency creates uncertainty and corruption. Where these things are allowed to continue without fair and consistent interpretation, abuse becomes chronic and the people rebel.
The Progressive Left in America accuses the Christian Right of being just such a "morality police" in America today. They point to Supreme Court rulings like the recent overturning of Roe v Wade as proof of that. Statements made like this demonstrate either a supreme ignorance of our founding documents and systems or willful intent to ignore them. Either way, the objective is clear: vilify Christians and tear them down.
16The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
17but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
Genesis 2:16–17 (NASB95)
God created human beings. God gave us one rule in the beginning: don't eat from this one tree. Like anyone put on a diet, suddenly the things we aren't allowed to have are all we crave. It is inconceivable that God didn't know Adam and Eve were going to disobey Him. Those who follow a free will tradition like Methodism recognize this as the first bad choice, but God let them make it. He did not stop Adam and Eve from choosing to disobey His command to not eat the fruit, and Mankind has been paying the price ever since. Those from a predestination tradition based on Calvinism have other explanations, but those are irrelevant for the purposes of this discussion which is based on free will.
God didn't stop Adam and Eve from making the first bad decision. God granted them the freedom to choose. What God did not take away were the consequences of that choice.
16To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”
17Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.
18“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;
19By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
Genesis 3:16–19 (NASB95)
The freedoms of the United States of America are enshrined in the US Constitution. The authors of this document debated and argued about what words to include to communicate their intent in public. We can read about these discussions and discover exactly why each paragraph and sentence was included or excluded in the Federalist Papers. Those who do not educate themselves on what the framers intended and still argue with those who have read these papers do themselves a disservice.
The point is that in America we have freedoms as well. We've established a system to ensure as much individual freedom can be retained by the citizens of the country and states in which they reside as possible. However, we have a class of politicians seeking office that do not care at all about what those freedoms are, how they are derived, and the intent of those who founded our great nation. Those politicians should be avoided. We should choose different politicians. However, some do not agree with the principles and ideas of "the other guy." How do we choose wisely?
1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
2To know wisdom and instruction,To discern the sayings of understanding,
3To receive instruction in wise behavior,Righteousness, justice and equity;
4To give prudence to the naive,To the youth knowledge and discretion,
5A wise man will hear and increase in learning,And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,
6To understand a proverb and a figure,The words of the wise and their riddles.
7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:1–7 (NASB95)
"You can't legislate morality" has been the hue and cry for as long as I can remember. Mainly, this cry comes from anti-abortion politicians who win elections. The problem with this statement is that it is patently false. All laws are legislating morality. Every one of them lists what is viewed as good or bad by society. All of them. What the people who make this claim are doing is trying to get the listener to agree that what they want to do shouldn't be codified into law but instead held strictly as social mores, which can be affected and run down by the will of the mob.
Laws, when administered by just men and women, cannot be shifted, and changed on an emotional whim like the passions of a mob incited to riot. No law should ever be made or unmade in the heat of the moment. It is why we have lesser sentences for "crimes of passion" committed when emotions run high, because strong emotions cloud judgment. This principle can be best illustrated by the email everyone has sent in the midst of being angry at someone only to wish to be able to call it back immediately after sending it. It cannot be recalled. The words cannot be unspoken or unread. The emotional damage done cannot be undone by even the most sincere and heartfelt apology.
8The wise of heart will receive commands, But a babbling fool will be ruined.
9He who walks in integrity walks securely, But he who perverts his ways will be found out.
Proverbs 10:8–9 (NASB95)
The character of our elected officials matters. Whom we put in office matters. What they believe matters. If we elect people who are not grounded in consistent and readily understandable principles, we are liable to admit people who will abuse the system to their own ends. The "morality police" of Iran are currently reaping what they have sown from the people they disabuse based on the evil whims of their own desires.
In times gone by Christians could disagree on how to run America under the Constitution and still be faithful men and women of God. We need to get back to that time. We need principled men and women serving in office. To do that we need to make character matter again. We need people with hearts to receive God's commands. But how do we do that?
5Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
6and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,
7and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
8For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
2 Peter 1:5–9 (NASB95)
Faith in Jesus Christ is our beginning. It is our personal, one on one connection to the Divine. We become His children, His followers, and His chosen when we acknowledge His Son Jesus and the Gospel of what He did for all of humanity. This becomes our cornerstone of faith upon which we can build everything else.
It is from that cornerstone we begin to rebuild the character of our elected officials. We select them not through the words they say, but through the actions they have produced prior to our decision to vote for them or not. We look back on the fruit of their prior labor to predict the outcome of their future efforts.
15“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
16“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
17“So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
18“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
19“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20“So then, you will know them by their fruits.
Matthew 7:15–20 (NASB95)
Everyone says the right thing on the campaign trail. They speak well in front of the cameras. Sound bites are produced and repeated as video clips go viral on the internet. Yet these snippets are not even a grain of sand into who that person truly is. We as fallible human beings cannot see into someone's heart, but we can look upon the body of work their life has produced. What is that body of work? Do we judge it to be good or bad? What yardstick do we individually use to make this judgment, and what do we do with it once we've made it? These are all questions we individually have to answer, but for which God has handily already provided in His Word. Who should we vote for as a solid person of faith? Here's God's answer:
1It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.
2An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.
4He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity
5(but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),
6and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.
7And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
8Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued, or addicted to much wine or fond of sordid gain,
9but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
10These men must also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach.
11Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.
12Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households.
13For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 3:1–13 (NASB95)
"That's an impossible standard. No one today can meet that standard." Maybe not, but that doesn't remove the fact that it is God's standard.
"We only have two choices and they're both horrible candidates who don't meet that standard." That is likely very true right now, but it doesn't mean one isn't the right choice.
"Both candidates are so bad I just won't vote. That'll teach them to put up candidates of character over the long run." No, no it won't and not voting is a vote. Likely, one of the candidates benefits greatly from everyone who doesn't vote. The only way to change the candidates who are being put up for us to select from is to get involved in the process locally. Getting off the bench and getting involved is the only way to begin to have an effect on the system. Otherwise, we are destined to live under the "morality police" and they likely will not support the principles we support nor be fair to those who think like we do. Know them by their fruits and chose.