...but not to Create Arbitrary Standards

By T. M. Moore in The Limits of Politics

Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray…”
--Amos 2:4

We recall that politics is the science of government, and government has been instituted by God for the good of the governed. Politicians do well when they govern according to the divine plan, as revealed in Scripture, which is able to equip us for every good work. Daniel did not shy away from insisting that the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar should turn from the lies he was practicing to follow the Law of God. John the Baptist held the pagan king Herod accountable for transgressing God’s plan for marriage.

Additionally, the prophets, all of them, routinely indicted the nations of the world for acting in a manner inconsistent and at odds with the divine plan for human flourishing. Good government is government God’s way; good politics is the science of government carried out in accordance with what God has revealed in His Word.

Thus is it is good for politicians to create and maintain an order to society in which goodness and justice might flourish. But it is not good for politicians to presume to be able to define the terms of justice and goodness. Governments must be pegged to unchanging standards, such as are outlined in the moral law of God, and not feel as though changing times or extraordinary needs or circumstances somehow empower them to define new standards of order, goodness, and justice, conveniently ignoring existing standards, or tried and proven standards, in the process.

In our day the courts are the diamond pipe for arbitrary standards of justice, standards created to reflect the social and cultural mood of the day rather than to refract the justice of God. To be sure, courts can act to restore justice in a society where this has been corrupted, as in the civil rights rulings of the 1950s and 60s. Court rulings, such as Brown v Board of Education, made it possible for other branches of government to create laws to redress long-standing social evils.

On the other hand, courts become the source of new standards of justice when, to accommodate pressures for social change, they ignore long-standing and fixed moral standards by judicial fiat, as in Roe v Wade and the infamous “mystery clause” of Planned Parenthood v Casey. It is not the province of politics, in any of its branches to reshape society in ways that can be shown to be contrary to the divine purpose.

Now, I’m fully aware that the vast majority of contemporary politicians feel no compulsion whatsoever to consider the form God might like their actions or policies to take. And since that is the case, and I think that’s easy enough to demonstrate, then we should insist that such politicians desist from any and all public attempts to invoke God on behalf of their plans or programs. We should denounce them when they call for the Lord to bless this nation, since what they really mean is that they want God to get with the program and keep us safe while we do whatever it is we want to do, apart from any meaningful input from Him.

At the same time, Christians should begin to make it clear that they will only support politicians who take seriously the teaching of Scripture concerning good government. For this we can appeal, not merely to Scripture, but to the long heritage of British common law and the explicit teachings of the Founding Fathers of our nation. Good government is good when it governs God’s way. It is illegitimate when it ignores, forsakes, or transgressions the clearly revealed standards of order, goodness, and justice which may be consulted in the Word of God.

This is not a call for theocracy. This is a call for good government and for politics that functions within the limits of order, goodness, and justice that are defined for in the Scriptures.