Where Do Physical Ethics Come From? Page 3

store and buy a few rubber wristbands to tell the world that you indeed have good intentions. After all, with all the unacknowledged guilt secularism builds up, it is an exhilarating moral cleanser to go on a good 5k walk, donate blood or clean a section of freeway…just remember to wear the T-shirt telling everyone about it.

  Now all this boasting is quite enough for the individual, but when lawmakers try to flaunt their empathy…look out! “Sin taxes” are reinterpreted as legislators rush to show their Survival ethics by taxing or banning an ever expanding list of “unhealthy” things like trans-fat, junk food, soda and even Happy Meals. Some want to show their allegiance with Nature ethics, by reducing humanity’s ecological footprint, by heavily taxing and restricting everyone’s water or energy use. And the courts clog with an explosion of Victim lawsuits as politicians push to outlaw bad intentions through edicts like “hate crimes” legislation. At the same time we try to choke the very beast of burden we’re riding on—overly regulating and taxing free market capitalism—because it is Utilitarian.

  Clearly, the secular city is a mess. It is intrinsically dysfunctional because it operates on a principle of equalizing intentions over effective, utilitarian results. For example, a giant pharmaceutical company can work for years in R & D trying to bring effective drugs to market, resulting in millions of lives being saved, and still be wholly despised by a secular society. That is because the profit motive is nakedly Utilitarian. The company is too large. They must be evil. Their big business obviously needs more regulation and taxes--end of issue. On the other hand, an incompetent politician can put a disastrous public welfare program in place, that ruins millions of families, and yet be loved for his or her equalizing intent. No, secularism for all its promises of safe impartiality is, in fact, dangerously biased.

  In America we have entire cities like Detroit and states like California where the rule of physical ethics, dysfunctional intentions and the growing corruption of powerful “equalizers” is literally bankrupting everything from kindergarten to retirement. This will often happen because a secular city gets trapped in the box of its own ethical intentions. Would-be reformers are easily portrayed as utilitarian by corrupt leaders who convince the public of their own equalizing intentions. Ironically, in places where physical ethics have most thoroughly replaced God as king, the ugliest desolation spreads under the friendliest banner of empathy and progress. Go figure.

  Where does religion fit in a physical world?

  Now, of course, religion must have a place in all this. How do we explain the widely persistent belief in God throughout history? To a secular society, motivated by so many fears, the “god myth” is most likely another form of fear. It is a frightened pathology or, perhaps, a raw manipulation. Regardless, religion is a very dangerous thing because it is so thoroughly rooted in inequality. Yes, religious people seem to breath inequality. They constantly make unequal distinctions—judgments--between good and evil and plants and animals and people and angels and demons and God. To them, there are different levels on earth, levels in heaven and, thanks to Dante, even levels in hell! Whether these people are just stupidly manipulated or trying to dominate and manipulate others, it doesn’t matter. These people seem to facilitate an unequal, Utilitarian approach to reality. Thus, to our post-modern society aiming for a conflict-free world premised on eliminating deeply held convictions that are born of social identities and distinctions, the religious population is obviously unhealthy and a dangerous roadblock to peace and progress.

  But, please don’t get me wrong. It is possible for religious people to get along quite well in the secular city. We only need to squelch our unequal views on most everything, from obeying God to a Created order. This is really not that hard a pill to swallow. Just tell yourself it’s all done for the cause of Tolerance and Love. Then we simply demonstrate to a secular world that we too are enlightened equalizers with good intentions. We privatize the spiritual and publicize the physical stuff, helping Victims and the environment. We show our Survival ethic by turning, not only against every war but, against every strongly held religious conviction. And, we Christians develop a “social conscience” by taking up the banner of absolute physical equality with causes like gay or animal rights. Yes, we too can join a world where an occasional newborn baby is sold for body parts while Twinkies and trans-fat take on important new moral dimensions.

  The problem is that so few of us today really understand what is going on. We don’t understand the very ethics we would adopt. Thus, we miss the fact that God has no place in a secular society. Defensive, physical ethics suggest that Strong threats (like a Christian majority) be used and we are, indeed, being used. Thus, Christians are making compromises that never seem to last. That is because there is no real compromise between physical ethics and Faith. For example, “civil unions” were thought to be a loving compromise position between a religious majority and secular minority who embrace the ideal of physical equality. But, once such unions were codified into law, the push for redefining marriage, social norms and civilization itself only increased. The anger actual grew, leaving “loving Christians” to rediscover once more that peace and unity with a secular worldview is elusive because, ultimately, it is Christ that must go.

  It sometimes occurs to me that we in the West have become like the infamous Harlot of Babylon, riding the apocalyptic beast, claiming “I am no widow”…when, in fact, we have already abandoned the Bridegroom. Yes, we have seen the old Social Gospel turn into thuggish Victim ethics. We have seen Christian movements once filled with love for Christ in the poor, now primarily filled with outrage at a Utilitarian system that produces inequalities. We have even seen religious people champion abortion as an effective way to lessen human impact on Nature. And, we have seen the children of God try to equalize the Church too--from theology to the parking lot--every conceivable form of patriarchy and hierarchy needing to be tamped down. We have also seen Bishops worried about how their intentions were perceived by a secular city. We have seen our own brothers and sisters try to flatten God down to fit into a physical world of equality. We have seen such inclusive religion that it excluded itself. Thus, most tragically, we have seen the very truth of Jesus as Lord and King become an embarrassment to many a Christian.

  Epilogue

  After the World Wars of the 20th century, especially after the horrors of the Bomb and the Nazi attempt to “cleanse” the world, thinking along Utilitarian lines was almost completely stigmatized as heartless and cruel. Science and technology became deeply suspect, but so did the inequality of religion. Horror movies were produced to reflect these new fears. There were mutant blobs, giant spiders and radioactive zombies. There was also a growing tendency to tear down the unequal worldview of “the Establishment”—a Judeo-Christian society. The post-modern or post-rational philosophy of equalizing intentions over results gained new traction, with Survival ethics leading a blood-soaked Europe out of the ruins.

  But, it all took longer here in the USA. It took the “living room war” of Viet Nam, a European invasion of music and ideas, as well as, some of our own bloody assassinations (JFK and Martin Luther King) to push a Judeo-Christian nation like America into the “blessed hope” of physical morality—into the chase after Survival, Victim and Nature ethics. But, here we are today seemingly trapped in the dysfunction. Ironically, our rejection of the mild confines of God’s kingdom did not lead us to greater liberty but, rather, oppression.

  Along with John Lennon we imagined a world of sharing, tolerance and peace. We had the best of intentions. We merely wanted to love each other. However, by rejecting a Creator, we reject a created order—a moral universe. Thus, we fall prey to our own primal drivers. Ultimately, this all leads to “Big Sis”, as we surrender ourselves to a corrupt and intrusive government based on “equality” and fear. In short, to reje
ct the fear of the Lord is to accept the fear of everything else. To remove the Cross is to carry the cruel and destructive burden of physical ethics upon our shoulders.

  “Then I heard another voice from heaven say: ‘Come out of her my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues.’” Revelation 18:4