Working for Goodness – The Law of God and Public Policy

Working for Goodness
The Law of God and Public Policy

Here are three approaches to working for goodness.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 1 Timothy 1:1, 2

How can Christians think about bringing more godliness into public policy? Let me suggest three approaches, yes, to legislating morality more in line with that which God approves.

First, we must always oppose laws that require or permit ungodly practices. Confiscatory taxes, for example, have no basis in God’s Law. Nor do certain schemes for redistributing income. It would not be just for a community to be required to allow a porn shop to open if the council and people felt this was a compromise of the community’s moral code. Private organizations should not be compelled to meet “quotas” of any kind in hiring or other forms of representation.

Wherever unjust statutes are in effect—statutes which are contrary to the thrust of God’s Law—Christians must be prepared to expose the folly and danger of their utilitarian or pragmatic goals and work to craft laws, or to influence the making of laws, more in line with the teaching of Scripture. At times, their opposition may require acts of peaceful civil disobedience. For the most part, however, Christians should work through the channels of public-policy-making (conversation, publication, participation) to achieve godly ends through law.

Second, we must seek to encourage laws that reward godly behavior. Giving tax breaks for charitable contributions falls into this category. Community programs that foster godliness—scouting, for example, and church planting—should have the protection of the law to proceed according to their own institutional criteria and without the oppression of opposing moral views made into public policy through law or the courts. Certain kinds of zoning laws and building codes can be seen as means to preserve the value of neighbors’ property, and these should also be supported.

Third, we must seek to persuade the powers-that-be to adopt policies that restrict ungodliness. Defining ungodliness will always be a challenge. But consensus exists on certain matters. Thieves should be punished, as should be those who instigate violence or riots, slander or maliciously injure others, or who are publicly obscene. As much as we can agree with the existing consensus on such laws, Christians should support keeping and enforcing them.

There are areas of morality, however, where, while laws once addressed these, changing morality has set such laws aside—laws about abortion, adultery, pornography, homosexuality, gambling, and so forth. Christians do not give up on these, but we have to take a longer view in such areas. As we have seen, there will always be much work to do at lower levels of public-policy making before laws prohibiting certain forms of behavior are put on the books. We must work those levels diligently toward the time when laws can once again be crafted to promote godliness in every form.

Working for godliness through law and public policy is part of our calling as Christians in a society in which “we the people” have final determination concerning the moral framework within which we must live and by which we are governed.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.