Answer:
This is a very thoughtful question. Christians do often disagree along exactly the lines you’ve drawn here. We agree on our biblical morality, but when and where should we seek to advance this morality in the culture at large through our elected officials?
A good starting place is to not apologize for the fact that we wish for our government to intervene in society with laws, which we believe are MORAL. It’s a silly misconception to think that enlightened and open minded people don’t legislate ANY morality, want to straightjacket society. That’s foolish. ALL laws are, is legislated morality! If we didn’t legislate morality, there would be anarchy.
The question is not do we legislate morality, it’s WHOSE morality do we legislate and how much? Most Christian writers and thinkers would feel that in a pluralistic society that has a secular government, there are areas of broad agreement that we should come to with people of all faiths and worldviews – and it’s in those areas we ought to pursue laws for the common good.
There’s always a gap between what we as Christians think is moral and what we hope EVERYONE thinks is moral. Sabbath keeping and murder, for example. We all think murder and stealing is bad – they should be illegal. But not working on Sunday’s. That’s a specific moral issue that even Christians debate about, so it’s not a good area to push for a law that everyone has to obey.
Those are the easy ones. Between those extremes, you have a lot of moral questions, where the consensus isn’t as strong. And here we have to admit that the consensus is evolving. There was a day (believe it or not) when Americans were so agreed on sexual ethics that they DID have laws in most States that banned adultery , homosexual sex (Sodomy laws), opening your business on Sunday and divorce. When we agreed on more things, we could make tighter laws. The less we agree, the less laws we can agree on.
Eventually the moral consensus may shrink down to the absolute lowest common denominator, like “live and let live, don’t hurt others.” It’s amazing in this climate that we still have laws banning the use and trade of drugs. But you can see, that with the legalization of marijuana, that it’s only a matter of time before that taboo is gone.
So just because the society’s morals are sliding and eroding, doesn’t mean that we Christians must sit back and accept that. After all, we can appeal to the common decency that we believe lives in all humans made in God’s image. Of course, we also know from our view of the sin nature, that humans will automatically slip and slide into moral depravity. So it’s never going to be an easy process. Ironically, right now most people can still see, without being Christians, that it’s in the interest of the common good to limit the drug trade. But we can’t see that there’s any public interest in limiting marriage to heterosexual monogamy or in limiting abortions. Someday we may be fighting to keep the drug trade illegal, or we may even have to fight the slavery battle all over again.
Speaking of which, William Wilberforce lived in an England that had a “live and let live” ethic that tolerated the abhorrent slave trade. He wasn’t cowed by that eroding moral consensus into inactivity. He used political machinery and worked for, voted for and eventually won the end of the slave trade and the freedom of all slaves in the Commonwealth. He found partners who were not Christians but who found the same moral sense from our common Creator, and he sought to create laws for the common good – even when a good majority of people thought he was “imposing his beliefs” on others.
So we can do the same in the areas of homosexual marriage and abortion – but when we do, I think we have to make our case, not based on the bible – because that’s our unique religious perspective. If this is for the common good, with a government that can’t establish any particular religion, we have to make our case based on “natural law” and history (and Christian Scripture certainly is a part of the historical record and the shaping influence of this country).
So when it comes to homosexuality and abortion, there are good historical and logical and natural arguments for why there should be limits on both. IF Christians are to argue their point, they must first appeal to logic and history – not the Bible. Then it can’t be said that we’re “jamming our religion” down anyone’s throat – no more so that when we advocate for stronger laws for murderers or robbers we’re not “jamming religion” either! It’s an issue of “common good”.
Now we can steward our votes and our efforts in the direction of Biblical morality and the results could go one of two ways. We could win the day. Yes, even with the current climate of moral relativism, the appeal to natural law and logic could change perspectives. Remember that slavery in the States was just like these modern issues where many people thought, “live and let live”. In fact, the North didn’t go to war to end slavery, but just to stop the spread of slavery. People wondered if this was just a “private” matter. Well, imagine someone saying that today, that owning slaves is a private moral issue? It wouldn’t happen because minds have been changed decisively on the issue – by people like Lincoln and many Christians who worked tireless to win emancipation.
Now, humbly, we must not be “blinded by the Might”. Christians who think that they can advance God’s kingdom solely through politics are fooling themselves and usually diminishing the MAIN vehicle God uses to change the world, and that’s the Church. Wilberforce himself acknowledged that if he was to be successful in his campaign to eliminate slavery, it was going to be through the combined efforts of people like him working as change agents in the culture, and the Church creating the soil for those efforts to take root in changed hearts through devotion to Jesus Christ.
That’s our MAIN work as Christians, not the advancement of Christians “laws” in society. We must keep a balanced view. So that if the second thing happens we do not lose heart. The second way this could go is that the culture slides further and further, morally speaking, away from God’s good standards designed for our health and well being. Our efforts could fail. The human heart is made in God’s image and it may be drawn to God’s law (Rom 2:14) but it is rebellious and will suppress truth (Rom 1:21) and even wind up calling good evil and evil good (Rom 1:32).
What happens then? We do not loose heart, because we don’t NEED the government to honor Christian standards. It would be nice, “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” However, to expect the gov’t to raise my kids, teach me how to pray, teach me about God, advance all my values, is deeply flawed thinking. It’s making the State a surrogate Church and that’s not its God given role. I don’t need the state to honor Christmas or Easter. My president isn’t my pope. I just need him/her to rule justly and Scripture talks about just kings who were not followers of the Biblical God (Cyrus, Artaxerxes).
So our main role in society is to be salt and light, as you mention. If we’ve been given influence through the vote, so be it. Steward it well to advance laws and policies that you think will advance God’s designs which we know are for our good and blessing. Who knows, change may move our society for the better. But far more importantly, live out those designs! See the church as the main vehicle of hope as it proclaims the heart changing message of Christ, which in turn changes more change agents (voters!).
I’m convinced that if Christians lived out God’s rules for life because we trusted him and obeyed him (and were creating more and more people like this), then there would be half the controversy in the areas of Homosexuality and Abortion. Why? Because the abortion industry would literally DRY up if Christians stopped having them. 1.5 million a year – and do you think that most of these are done by non-Christians? Not in America, no way. I suspect most are done by Christians. Justified in the moment, hushed up for a while, regretted for a lifetime.
Same with Homosexuality. It’s always going to be with us, but if Christians were faithful to their marriage partners and didn’t divorce as commonly as non-Christians, if Christians respected the power and sacredness of sex, do you think that the homosexual lobby would be as strong as it is? No way. Because people would see sex working right and homosexuality would be exposed for the empty substitute it is and it would remain relegated to the sidelines instead of the front page news every day.
Our main task then must remain what is has always been: Proclaiming the life changing message of the Kingdom of God – and as a byproduct of that Mission, unleashing millions of change agents into the culture to affect good in Jesus name, in art, in science, in media, in business, in entertainment, and in politics.