I have had a number of fairly intense debates / discussions of late, mostly, but not entirely, with young Christians, regarding abortion, homosexuality, and LGBT lifestyle issues. I have been struck by the intensity of their feelings and by their sincerity. What have I heard? Dissatisfaction with a perceived lack of compassion among traditionally-minded Christians (including the Missouri Synod); a lot of pro-choice rhetoric, and sometimes even a full-throated embrace of pro-choice politics; skepticism regarding the Church’s historic teaching concerning homosexuality; and, of course, the belief that we must love one another and not judge people just for being who they are. In other words, I’ve been hearing a lot of the same things that have been emanating for quite a while now from our televisions, from pundits and from politicians. But here’s what I haven’t been hearing: I haven’t been hearing Scripture. I haven’t been hearing theology. I’ve been hearing a lot of political theory. I don’t think these Christians mean to substitute politics for the truth of the Gospel, but in practice if it’s not quite that, it’s sometimes coming pretty close.
Here’s why I say “political theory”, and here’s what I mean by that. Bear with me a moment. There is, in our society, a pronounced tendency to frame moral, lifestyle and identity issues in terms of individual autonomy. That is the very essence of a political theory with deep roots on both the left and right called “liberalism”. As political theory, liberalism flourishes today as so called “classical liberalism”, and as Libertarianism, but also as a kind of radical individualism where personal autonomy is seen not just as liberty from legal constraint, but from social and moral constraint as well. On the left and the right personal liberty is often described as the highest political value, and there is much talk on both sides about “rights”. Opposing political theories, often labeled as “illiberal”, can be seen on the left in “woke” politics and some kinds of progressivism, and on the right in some kinds of social conservativism. These other political theories are often characterized as “illiberal” because individual liberty, in the sense of personal autonomy, is not generally upheld as the highest good. Instead, conformity to some greater good is emphasized—to God, say, or the community, or the State, or anti-racism.
There are moral and theological implications to radical individualism. Where individual autonomy is seen as the highest good, authenticity becomes a high, perhaps even the highest, virtue. An authentic person, whatever else they may be, is a person who is true to themselves. They ought to be respected for being courageously and virtuously authentic. After all, it’s very courageous and virtuous for a gay person to “come out”, or for a Trans person to make the switch. Not only that, but they ought to be honored and respected also, for who they are, because there is no better way to be than to be the way you really are.
On the other hand, an inauthentic person is to an extent affected, hypocritical, and fake. Christians are often characterized this way. Deep down they know they are really no better and no different, but they hide that fact, from themselves and others. Worse yet, they judge others who, ironically, are really more honest and virtuous than the Christians who judge them! Inauthentic people deserve moral approbation because they are fundamentally dishonest, and that is the opposite of authentic.
Moreover, in this way of thinking, to subject an authentic person to moral judgment merely for being who they are is to deny, in some sense, their very humanity. To do that—and especially to do that in the name of Jesus—is mean-spirited and hypocritical. It is the opposite of “loving your neighbor as yourself”. No matter what the Scriptures say, to someone who upholds the virtue of authenticity in this way, the Church judging people for being homosexual just seems mean.
It’s this kind of political theory that is giving rise to much of the confusion among Christians when it comes to sex, gender and LGBT issues, even to the point of engendering hostility to some very ancient and heretofore uncontroversial Church teachings. But these Christians often don’t realize this. They just think they’re being nice, accepting, loving—like Jesus.
The problem here is that Jesus, though indeed an enemy of a certain kind of hypocrisy, is no great champion of authenticity or personal autonomy. That’s the fact. Being “true to oneself” and “self-actualization” are not high virtues in the Kingdom of God. Rather, Scripture is filled with exhortations to the fear of God, obedience to the Word, humble faith, repentance, self-denial, self-discipline, suppression of the Old Adam, self-sacrifice, humility, dependence on God, chastity, faithfulness in suffering, obedience to authority—as well as warnings against pride, self-exaltation, licentiousness, and libertinism. Now these are virtues in the Kingdom of God, and they are the kinds of virtues that arise from sound Theology. When I speak with Christians who are advancing pro-choice or LGBT causes, I don’t hear any of that. I hear instead about liberty, rights, personal autonomy, authenticity, and self-actualization. It is all well meaning and sincere, but it is not Theology. Rather, this is the stuff of political theory, and not good political theory.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with political theory as such, and though you might find it hard to believe these days, there is actually room in the Christian Church for a great many political theories to flourish. But we Christians have to be careful that the particular political theories we embrace line up with—or at least don’t contradict—our theology! There is a way that liberalism as a political theory, both the classical small government liberalism of the right, and the more expansive big government liberalism of the left, can fit with a Christian world view. But liberalism in the form of radical individualism is another matter. That kind of liberalism is an inversion of a most basic Christian truth, that sinners are not called to be authentic to themselves, but to repent of themselves, and to be authentic instead to Christ who dwells in them. More on all this in the next post.
James D. Burns
Pastor, First Lutheran Church (LC-MS)
Benton, Arkansas
First Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) 