In part six of our series, we are finally ready to address the questions “May Christians argue in the public sphere of a secular state for their preferred public policies? If so, how?”
Inescapable Limits
We are born into already existing societies with long traditions of culture and civilization and finely-woven networks of relationships negotiated over the centuries. There is no possibility of creating a society from scratch. I see no way to escape history and dream up, much less construct, a completely rational social and political order. We do the best we can do where we live and when. I live in the United States of America on the eve of its 250th anniversary. As a citizen, I have access to the means other citizens have to influence public policy. But how should my Christian faith and Christian moral convictions affect the range of policies I support and how may I argue for them? And how may I exercise these rights while taking care not to misuse Jesus’s and his apostles’ moral teachings, given to individual Christians and the Church, by claiming his authority for my public policy preferences?
Reason, Tradition, and Moral Law
Christianity’s moral vision is not utterly unique and other worldly. Indeed, it includes extraordinary virtues, behaviors, and attitudes that cannot be legislated by a state. But it also includes the common principles and moral rules that make human society possible. Peace, order, and justice are Christian as well as universal human values. Christianity prohibits murder, stealing, lying under oath, rape, and many forms of violent, anti-social acts. In arguing for policies that operationalize these basic social rules, Christians don’t need to appeal explicitly to Jesus’s teaching or the kingdom-of-God vision. We can appeal to practical reason, common moral sensibility or a common sense of decency. Moreover, in the USA Christians can appeal to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in legal arguments. Appealing in this way to practical reason we can be more persuasive to the public many of whom do not share our Christian faith. If we appeal to the authority of Jesus to support a policy that could have been supported by practical reason, we may unintentionally leave the impression that the rationality of the policy depends on faith in Jesus. Non-religious people may inadvertently be given an excuse to dismiss the proposal as religiously based. Additionally, such a strategy may provoke needless debates among Christians about the meaning of Jesus’s teaching for public morality.
Christian Realism
We can debate what virtues and vices may realistically be institutionalized in law. As examples, one can make some excellent rational arguments against drunkenness, divorce, fornication, adultery, pornography, and many other destructive behaviors. But society as a whole may not be convinced that making such behaviors illegal is worth the trouble. Even if we limit our arguments to those that can be supported by practical rationality and argue from moral principles recognizable by all people, we need to be realistic about how much restraint on their lust and greed people will tolerate. People welcome laws against murder, robbery, kidnapping, and theft, that is, laws that protect their persons and property. They can see the rationality of traffic and zoning laws. But they resent laws that restrict what they perceive to be their liberties. As we discussed in the previous essay, Christians should know that the kingdom of God cannot be realized in its fulness by human effort. I do not believe that it is our duty as Christians to impose morality on society beyond that necessary for the continuance of civilization. To attempt this is to risk becoming unnecessarily obnoxious to the general public.
Christianized Reason
If Christians need to limit their public policy arguments to practical reason and constitutional law, what difference, then, does being a Christian make in a person’s political involvement? In my view, something like the following may specify that difference.
Christians are being transformed into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18) and liberated from the powers of sin, death, and the devil (Romans 8:1-3). The Holy Spirit places the love of God in their hearts, and they are animated by the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:1-4). Christians are called to live extraordinary lives, and they have been given the resources to do so:
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Colossians 3:5-10)
If they use the gifts they have been given, Christians can be liberated from irrational passions and habitual vices that obscure reason’s proper functioning. Christians may perceive the goodness and rationality of a policy that people blinded by bad habits and irrational passions cannot see. Even if Christians limit their public policy arguments to practical reason understandable by all, the policies for which they argue and the strength of their arguments will be affected by their Christian experience and faith. Christian citizens may be able to help non-religious citizens see what they could not otherwise see because of social pressure, passion, and habit.
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