A Truthful Society – The Law of God and Public Policy

A Truthful Society
The Law of God and Public Policy

Christians must work for truth in all aspects of society.

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

Undoubtedly, all who serve or have interest in public policy matters in our country would insist that they are concerned that truth should be the guiding norm in all their deliberations and decisions. No politician in a free society ever made much headway in his career by promising to lie to and deceive the electorate.

Which is not the same as saying that politicians don’t lie and deceive anyway. Many do. They just would not want us to think they are.

The question is not, therefore, whether we shall be a society founded on truth. The question is, rather, which view of truth will obtain in the public square.

In our day pragmatism and relativism occupy the commanding heights of truth, and are directing all the public policy battles according to changeable tenets of right and wrong. The challenge to the Christian is to recognize the false pretenses on which public policy today is being developed and to challenge the viability of pragmatism and relativism for enabling government to fulfill its God-given mandate.

It’s not enough for Christians to weigh in on particular issues. We need to expose, undermine, dismantle, and replace the very foundations on which politicians and others pursue making policies that will guide the affairs of our nation and, in a very real sense, define our very lives.

Here is where it is very important that Christians should be especially active in the public-policy arenas of conversation and publication. Opportunities abound on every hand for us to talk, write, and blog about the fallacies involved in seeking to build a truthful society on the shifty and shaking foundations of relativism and utilitarianism. While we will also want to be ready to participate in making public policy through participation—if only as members of the electorate: “we the people”—the greater and more enduring victories toward establishing a sure and stable foundation of truth will be won in our conversations with neighbors and friends, and in our efforts to expose the flimsiness of contemporary views of truth, and to establish the Biblical view, through the various media outlets available to us.

Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition. Does the Law of God still apply today? Order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, and study the question for yourself.

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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.