Do you have to?

Objections. For some reason I have been reflecting on objections recently – objections to Christianity and its practice. I am distressed by these objections both inside and outside the Church, often because they seem to be based on misunderstandings. This might lead me to an excoriation of the irresponsibly uninformed except that, alas, we have no one but ourselves to blame for it. Confusion outside the Church comes most often from confusion within.

The objection that I have been mulling over most recently is the one that Christian faith is all about following the rules. I can remember that I was reticent to become a Christian at one point in my life because I thought that it meant I would never have any fun again – too busy following the rules and, sadly, tsk-tsking over my glasses at those who were not. This latter part, the tsk-tsking, is what gives us the reputation and promotes the misunderstanding. My fundamental objection in the form of a question was, “do you have to…?” We in the Church, and particularly in the more conservative part, have made a career of trying to enforce moral control over Christians and even non-Christians. The answer is “yes, you have to.”

And now I hear the objection from inside the Church, “Here is another libertine - a liberal who doesn’t think what we do matters.” Not so. Christianity, and Judaism for that matter, proclaim moral order, not moral control. Moral control is an overstepping of authority. If you read the Old and New Testaments carefully, you will find they say nothing about the control of others, but an awful lot about self-control.

I once had a parishioner who had come recently from a moral control kind of church environment. I was a little surprised when he asked my permission to get a tattoo – an appropriately Christian one, to be sure. When I stated my surprise at this, he just said that he would have to have had permission from his pastor at his previous Church. This is moral control - and weird to boot. (For those wondering if you should tell me about any permanent dermal inking, I really don’t need to know.)

Yet there is a moral order to the universe and Christians have always upheld this conviction. Moral order differs from moral control in that it is descriptive rather than prescriptive. In short, “no you don’t have to, but…” Christians understand, hopefully, that we live in a world of moral order – that we are free to do as we choose, but that our choices and actions have consequences. Moses in addressing the people said, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life.” Deuteronomy 30:19.

Here there is an invitation to choose, to act. There is not coercion or control. There is indeed encouragement toward that which is good. But exhortation is not compulsion. The Bible is filled with people who did not do what they were supposed to do, the murderer Moses being but one

It seems to me that we would do better to talk about this moral order than to be trying to exert moral control over people. We as a culture need to hear that we are free but that our choices have consequences. We need look no further than the current national debt crisis to see that we are a people who seem to think we can continue to spend more than we take in and expect that there will be no consequences, such as someone thinking we might not be such a good credit risk anymore. Choices and actions have consequences, both good and bad. That is a summary of the moral order God has made in his universe.

And he sets before us the good and the bad, life and death, blessings and curses. That is moral order. Therefore, choose life.