Our Proverbs 29:2B Society: Not Just Politics As Usual

For today, some observations concerning the recent news, the U.S. Supreme Court rulings concerning laws about homosexual marriage. First, a few good articles for reference:  Al Mohler’s commentary and two posts from The Cripplegate (Jesse Johnson):  this first one  and this follow up.

A nominal Christian friend, generally indifferent about spiritual things, casually dismissed the recent news as basically “politics as usual.” Among the comments were platitudes about how we’re all corrupt and so even if we get rid of one bunch of politicians and form our own government, soon enough that government would become just as corrupt because people are corrupt and “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Also, “remember that this world is not our home” (suggesting complete indifference to the overall moral breakdown of our society in recent decades).  As to the Supreme Court’s striking down the DOMA law passed by both House and Senate in 1996, he added that “oh well, the current Congress can just do it again, just pass another law for the same issue,” and keep doing so every few years.

Aside from the obvious fact that the current divided Congress would not be able to pass such a law anyway, the specifics in this case make the situation far worse than this person realizes: Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority, made a moral decision, finding the law unconstitutional precisely because it denied “the equal dignity” of same-sex marriage.  As Mohler well described it: he (Kennedy) asserted, quite forcefully, that opposition to same-sex marriage is rooted in animus or hatred. In other words, Justice Kennedy, joined by four other justices, believes that opposition to same-sex marriage is wrong. In condemning a moral judgment, he arrogantly made a moral judgment.

Yes, politics and politicians have always been with us, and it is true in overall human government that “there is nothing new under the sun.” I once read commentary from C.H. Spurgeon that was very cynical of the government in his day. However, most societies throughout the centuries (thankfully, due to God’s common grace) are not experiencing Romans 1 wrath, such that those in leadership fail to uphold the law, call evil good and good evil, and reject the “concept that governments exist to check sin, rather than to promote it.”

John MacArthur has also pointed out the difference between normal politics and when government leaders step into the area of theology. From this 2009 phone interview (in reference to Obama’s pro-homosexual marriage comments to a group):

He has left the area of politics, and he’s entered the realm of theology. In other words, he is now attacking scripture. That’s not politics. That’s not Republican and Democratic politics. That’s not economic policy. That’s not, you know, what kind of health care we’re going to have. Now you have decided that you’re going to be the sovereign over morality, and when you decide you’re going to be the sovereign over morality, you’ve just set the Bible aside, you’ve set God aside. That’s a scary posture to take, because you now are the new god with the new sovereignty who will tell us what the new morality is.

The U.S. 2012 Election: Sin Makes Us Stupid, the Reality of Romans 1

Among the many comments and responses to what has just happened, the re-election of President Obama, this one is especially good, so linking to it here:

Tom Chantry, How I Absorbed Three Punches and Stood Up Anyway