When Christians raise our voices concerning social and political issues they can be met with the rejoinder, ‘You can’t legislate morality’.

In reality, this is only half true; for although you can’t make people moral through legislation, at the same time you cannot legislate without morality. All legislation has a moral underpinning, the question is whose morality is being legislated.

Opposing world views

When Christians take a stance on moral grounds concerning issues such as same sex marriage or pro-abortion rulings, we can be met with a response which implies that by seeking to counter laws we see as immoral, we are doing something outwith the realm of Christian competence. We encounter the further argument that Christianity is a private matter for the individual and we shouldn’t try to ‘force’ our ideas on the rest of society.

All law is of necessity legislated morality and arises from moral judgements.

As Western society moves further and further away from its foundation in biblically shaped thinking, this is happening at an increasing rate. Behind this statement lies a profound cultural conflict within all of Western society between two opposing world views; Christianity and secular humanism, each of which have very different moral beliefs.

Moral foundations

All laws of necessity represent some system of morality; until recently, legislation in the West was largely grounded on biblical precepts. Laws against manslaughter and murder are moral laws: they enact the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Laws against theft echo the eighth commandment against stealing. Slander and libel laws and perjury laws enact the moral commandment, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness.’ Even traffic laws are moral laws, their purpose being to protect life and property, again reflecting the Ten Commandments.

Ultimately law is concerned with right and wrong; it seeks to punish and restrain what society sees as evil and protect what society considers good. This is what defines morality. All law is of necessity legislated morality and arises from moral judgements. We may disagree with the morality behind a law, but we cannot deny that law has moral foundations.

Humanism is a secular worldview with a strong moral foundation, which must be taken seriously.

The important question we must ask is, Whose morality? When the humanist tells the Christian ‘You can’t legislate morality,’ what he actually means is that Christians shouldn’t be allowed to legislate biblical morality, because he wants the humanistic morality that he values to be legislated.

New humanistic morality

In the West today, secular humanism and Christianity, each with its own morality and the laws emerging from that morality, are in the midst of a crucial conflict for the future of society. Humanism is a secular worldview with a strong moral foundation, which must be taken seriously. It is founded on the idea that individuals have a personal ethical responsibility to lead lives that are fulfilling for themselves while at the same time contributing to the greater good of all people.

Christians may find it difficult to accept, but the new West taking shape around us is a very moral West; albeit, its new morality is, for Christians, simply the old rebellious nature. What makes it worse is that this new, revolutionary, humanistic West is growing increasingly intolerant of opposition, especially when the opposition comes from Christians.

All morality has an underlying theology or view of God and those most unrelentingly opposed to Christian theology are almost invariably the most intolerant Inquisitors of all.

The new morality is enforced not just by parliamentary legislation, but by social pressure. Note the unofficial legislation of the mob whereby Maureen Martin, a Christian campaigning for election in London, was sacked for gross misconduct by her housing employer for upholding a Christian view of marriage even although she did this outside her workplace. Her view that heterosexual marriage was “the fundamental building block for a successful society, and the safest environment for raising children”, apparently caused ‘widespread outrage’.

Intolerant Inquisitors

There is a new moral authoritarianism very much on the ascendency in the West. For the first time since the 19th century, we have new quasi-religious tests and blasphemy laws encroaching on many areas of private and public life. The new framework of moral authority has in its sights, among other things, the rights of adherents of traditional Christianity to express their own beliefs in the public square. Like politics, all morality has an underlying theology or view of God and those most unrelentingly opposed to Christian theology are almost invariably the most intolerant Inquisitors of all.

Legislation regulates only our external behaviour and cannot regulate our consciences and motivations.

Christianity and secular humanism differ in their understanding of humanity. Christianity is modest enough to accept that we need help to be better people. Humanism is somewhat aggressive and perfectionist, seeking not only to make people behave outwardly in a way it considers acceptable, but seeking to make people more moral (in their view) inwardly. Unfortunately, legislation regulates only our external behaviour and cannot regulate our consciences and motivations (Matt 23:25-27). We cannot create moral individuals or a moral society through legislation. There is only one source of new life, and that is not the law.

When a society rejects biblical morality, it finds itself in a situation where it attempts to compensate by creating ever more laws. Today we have become a society that treats symptoms instead of diseases. The symptom is an ever increasingly disordered society; the disease is an ever decreasingly moral society. We may not be able to legislate morality, but we cannot afford to lose moral principles. Reject Scripture and you reject more than Scripture.