What's the Difference? Drawing the Line Between Liberals and Conservatives: Morality

In Part 1, we looked at how one views man's nature as evil or good affects their politics. Now, let's look at how it affects one's view on morality. Just as it is in the realm of politics, what one believes about morality is also rooted in anthropology.

Oftentimes are society wants to debate homosexuality, abortion, gun rights, crime, war, and other critical issues. But these are only issues that grow out of one's understanding of man's nature. Therefore, if we want to have a consistent worldview applied correctly, we must return to this fundamental difference.

LIBERALISM

Liberals, above all things, desire to be liberated from traditional morality. Traditional morality suppresses the nature of man. And, since man is good, anything that suppresses him should be abolished. Liberals acts with good intentions, but they always fail, especially in terms of morality.
Take the issue of homosexuality for example. When the AIDS crisis first emerged, many were quick to blame it on the rise of homosexuality where it's members have multiple partners. HIV and AIDS spreads quickest through homosexual intercourse. Our culture, and liberals in general, were quick to condemn such heresy. It is wrong to blame a group in society marginalized by religious bigots for the spread of AIDS. The very thought that a sexual lifestyle could kill others is preposterous to them, and therefore must be wrong.

Take abortion and other right-for-life issues for another example. What is the number one reason people give as a defense for death? Compassion and mercy. A mother who murders who own child is doing so because she doesn't want her child to struggle with a handicap all their life. A husband that blocks the giving of a feeding tube to his wife does so because he doesn't want to see her suffer. These decisions are viewed, not as they are, that is, murder, but rather as actions taken from the pure desires of the heart. No one wants a child to suffer from a birth defect do they? No one wants to see grandma continue to suffer from cancer do they? Those who find themselves at abortion clinics or signing the papers to refuse treatment are not viewed as murderers, but as loving family members who only want the best.

Notice again, the root behind the worldview: the nature of man. Surely no one would want to kill their own child or loved ones for selfish reasons. And persons who do murder for selfish reasons must be sick.

And that brings us to a similar issue in the area of morality: psychology and therapy. Our society radically changed whenever we treated criminals as persons who were sick rather than persons to be punished. This is born from a defective view of human nature. If man is good, then how can one be so evil? He must, the reasoning goes, be sick.

In America, and throughout the West, we have a condition for everything. This leads to a failure in dealing with crime in this country. We institutionalize criminals rather than punish them. We try to understand them rather than seek justice. These may sound like harsh words, but it is the truth. And if these are harsh words, then perhaps you are proving my point.

To many, it is inconceivable to think about punishing someone. How can we punish someone who murdered others because they were abused as a child? How could we be so misunderstanding about a person who raped a woman because his father molested him? How could we be so judgmental to say that a person who steals should pay for his crime whenever society and capitalism has let him down, making him poor with nowhere else to turn but to crime. We, therefore, sympathize with the worse of society because they have a "condition" rather than seek punishment for their actions.

See the mindset? They are not guilty of sin against humanity or society, rather, society and humanity is guilty of crimes against them. It is not their fault. No one would ever rob a gas station out of boredom. Rather, it must have a reason like poverty and desperation. Again, whenever we skew our understanding of man, society falls apart.

Crime continues to grow in our culture and therapy, too, continues to increase. And it is clear that it isn't working. We live on appeals, not justice. We thrive on understanding, not defending the harmed. And it all rises from a faulty view of man.

Now, let me just add that I do not believe that our culture sympathizes with every criminal. Obviously, much of the news regarding criminal actions and on criminals themselves is negative. However, it is impossible to escape the fact that though we do not approve of crime, we at the same time seek to understand why such a crime would be committed. Instead of finding the answer, i.e. human depravity, we rather turn to external things: poverty, sexual oppression, abuse, money, government, etc.

A therapeutic society, like ours, begins to fire on all cylinders and always misses. It only masks the problems, it doesn't solve them.

Enter, then, the self-esteem cult. Nothing makes me more sick than watching a so-called expert lecture us about self-esteem. To listen to them harms my self-esteem. The self-esteem movement has turned us into wimps. The pursuit of self-esteem takes away simple freedoms we used to enjoy. For example, since Johnny isn't as good on the monkey bars and continues to fall, we must remove them so that Johnny won't lose his self-esteem. Also, rather than grade papers, we give check marks for the students effort. Education is no longer about getting the answer right, but about trying. Why? Because if a student is consistently wrong, then his self-esteem might be hurt. And heaven forbid that happens.

This all has good intentions, but dire consequences. We become afraid to say no, turn someone down, or let them fail. With a faulty view of man, we come to think that all one needs is a pep talk and they will somehow become a winner with the right answer. Encouraging a kid while failing might make him feel better, but it does nothing to educate him. Encouraging a kid not to feel like a loser by not keeping score in a baseball game might make him feel like a winner, but it teaches him nothing about how to pick himself up, despite his failures, and overcome obstacles.

Thus, we have become a nation of wimps. And all of this is born out of a misunderstanding of human nature.

By misunderstanding human nature, the liberal worldview falls headlong into the Utopia ideal. One can see this Utopia worldview in many of the Humanist Manifestos. They believe that if man gets rid of religion, oppressive morality and ethics, destroy all weapons, end all wars, we can live in a Utopia world free of war, violence, corruption, and disease.

In order to do this, we must increase government, decrease liberty, stop religious bigotry, and trust in man's goodness. Everything mentioned above, the self-esteem cult, therapy, etc., are all geared in reaching Utopia. Though we all wish to live in such a world, by misunderstanding human nature, we find ourselves traveling away from Utopia rather than towards it.

CONSERVATIVES

Conservatives on the other hand see man as evil and it is this basic understanding of man that shapes their view on morality and ethics. By affirming the depravity of man, conservatives and Christians do not see the world through Utopian eyes, but through reality as it is. Things are getting worse, not better, despite our advance in knowledge, technology, enlightened philosophy, political power and influence, etc. For every disease cured, thousands are added. For every peace treaty signed, many wars begin. If the history of the world has taught us one thing, it has taught us that the liberal dream of Utopian will never happen because man cares only for himself.

And this is what lies at the heart of this understanding: man serves himself only. This is why the liberal hope of Utopia will never take place. A perfect world as dreamed by the left involves us all putting our differences aside, holding hands, singing Kumbaya, and watching opera in peace and tranquility. The problem with this is that such a vision goes against everything man is.

Every person serves only himself. Sure man can do selfless things at times, but at our core, we serve ourselves. This is why we cut down coworkers and suck-up to the boss to get that promotion. This is why vote the way we vote, we do the things we do, we have the friends that we have, we buy the things we buy, etc. Man, in all ways, seeks to serve himself.

Therefore, the liberal dream of Utopia will always remain a dream.

This, obviously, paints a negative picture of man and man's future. But this should not surprise us. Christ Himself warned of increase wars, famines, diseases, etc. Why in the world would we ever think that selfish man can overcome his very nature? Everyday, Christ's words continue to be proven correct.

Christians referred to this understanding of human nature Original Sin and Total Depravity. The concept of Original Sin goes back to the great theologian Augustine. It basically teaches that man is corrupt from birth. Total Depravity, typically a Calvinist doctrine, means that man's whole being is corrupt. In other words, everything he does will be tainted with sin and selfishness.

When it comes with understanding our culture, we must apply these two doctrines. Since man is sinful and selfish in all that he does, man will do anything to legalize, normalize, and praise their sin. The "evolution of culture and law," shows evidence of this. Whether the issue be homosexuality, abortion, gun rights, stem cell research, etc.

Man is obsessed with sin and in order to live in a culture that celebrates one's sin, they must first normalize it. "Everyone is doing it," is where it might begin. Although, if we understand man's nature correctly, such an argument would prove troubling. If everybody (that is sinful man) is doing it, then perhaps it is best not to.

But it doesn't stop there. Take homosexuality for example. In order to normalize sin, one must make the sin attractive, it's proponents like everyone else, and convince the people that it is nothing more than an "alternative lifestyle." One way of doing this is utilizing the media.

The media has been on the front lines of this debate. Over the evolution of our culture's opinion on this issue, the media has gone from not only recognizing it's existence, but accepting it and praising it. It seems that every show, especially reality shows, usually contains at least 1 homosexual who become the fan favorite.

Furthermore, we have made homosexuality funny. By placing homosexuals and homosexual jokes front and center in major comedies, the end result is convincing the public of it's innocence. What it does is cease to paint homosexuality as a monstrous lifestyle. This does not mean that we should view homosexuals as monsters. However, by making it funny, we cease to view it as a sin.

Therefore, the lifestyle becomes normal. This process doesn't only apply to homosexuality, and I do not intend on attacking only homosexuality. However, it is the easiest and most obvious of this process taking place in our culture today.

From the normalization of sin, man will then try to legalize their sin. By legalizing sin, we make our culture accept sin, not as sin, but as accepted behavior. If we normalize sin, we become sympathetic and lower our tone. If we legalize our sin, we make it acceptable behavior. What used to be wrong now becomes right.

This legalization of sin has one result: those who stand in the way are now in the wrong. We are seeing this in the debate over homosexuality. Whenever we legalize sin, by forcing the issue to be ethically right, those who oppose it are now in the wrong. Therefore, the name calling begins. Those who are for gun rights are called murderers. Those who are against affirmative action are racist. Those against abortion are sexists. And those against homosexual marriage are homophobes.

And the madness doesn't end there. As I have stated recently, we go from name calling, to the legalization of the new sin. Again, whenever culture legalizes sin, they make it ethically right. Therefore, those who always opposed that sin, are now committing sin and are ethically wrong. And so they must be silenced. And that is what we are seeing in our culture today.

As history has revealed, every culture will fall into moral decay and will love themselves for it. Sodom and Gomorrah were not the first to fall into moral decadence, and they are certainly not the last. Every world power destroys itself morally before any major threat attacks it from the outside.

As Christians, our concern must not be to fight homosexuality, abortion, stem-cell research, etc. Rather, our concern must be about the sinner in every person. Every person wants to live in their sin, have society embrace their sin, and have government legalize their sin; whatever it is. This is why the gospel aims at the sinner and Christ redeems the sinner. We must be a people about redeem a culture, not from specific sins, but from sin itself.

By correctly understanding human nature, we can better understand the chaos of our culture and world. As society progresses, so will it's acceptance and approval of sin. The liberal dream of Utopia is far fetched. If we want a true, selfless society, we must run to the cross. The answer is spiritual and theological, not political.

I pray that we do not remain distracted by issues, but rather are focused on human nature. If we begin here, we can win our country, our culture, and our world back.