Politicizing Morality

Evangelical Christian Pastor Flip Benham recently defended Roy Moore, the Republican Senatorial Candidate in Alabama, against the charge that he had sexually abused teenage girls decades earlier.  Benham's defense cited the fact the Moore had recently returned from Vietnam, that most women his age were married, and that he sought out "the purity of a young woman."

Benham's argument approaches justifying the alleged sexual abuse of young girls by placing the sexual needs of a grown man over protecting children.  But he is not alone in offering religious "cover" for Moore's behavior.  Others have argued that Moore should be elected because he opposes abortion, thus placing the rights of unborn children over the rights of those already here.  People who agree with that defense ought to wonder why a choice has to be made between two legitimate moral ends. They should be complementary not contradictory.

Democrats, in high dudgeon over Moore's behavior - and sensing political opportunity - have made their own compromises.  They seem anxious to deny him a Senate seat, even if elected, but have not called for Senator Al Franken to resign over his admitted transgressions against women.  While Franken's behavior may not be (at least as far as we know thus far) as egregious as Moore's, nor did most Democrats demand President Clinton's resignation after his sexual harassment of Monica Lewinsky. 

Politics thus has taken ascendancy over morality.  Questions of right and wrong have become secondary to political expediency.  This is yet another example of the politicization of everything.   Scientific objectivity is labeled "voodoo science" when it does not conform to political ideology. Facts are "fake news" when appearing in articles written by politically objectionable media.  Members of the bench are "so-called judges" when their opinions run contrary to political orthodoxy.  In these ways, politics degrades our trust in reason.  It now also degrades our trust in religion - a result that should worry religious leaders who politicize morality.

What makes this newest example especially troublesome is that it comes from the church, whose actions ought to be anchored in moral rectitude.  When some evangelical Christians rationalize the abuse of children because they oppose abortion, they practice moral relativism, the very behavior for which they have criticized modern liberalism.  Morality - for them and some liberals as well - ceases to be the province of right and wrong but becomes determined by the political purposes it advances or confounds.  Religion, rather than leading us to a higher plane, becomes a support for base behavior.

This should sound alarm bells in the pulpits - as well as in the homes and legislative halls - of America.  As Washington said in his Farewell Address in 1796:  "It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government."  When morality is sacrificed to the aims of politics, what does this teach the young, on whom the future and moral strength of all our institutions depend?  How can idealism, the source of our greatest appeal to those living under abusive governments, survive when they see America governed not by moral ideals but by a politics in which immorality is too easily justified?  When morality is politically inconvenient, how do we build trust in the political system as a vehicle for addressing moral issues with even-handedness and justice?  And, for religious leaders, how can faith-based institutions survive when their followers see politics not as the servant but as the master of morality?

Roy Moore, Al Franken, Bill Clinton, and a host of others already named - and perhaps yet to be named - should have confronted one simple question when temptation reared its head: will the action I am considering respect or damage human dignity?  Human dignity is both the product and practice of morality.  That they ignored either the question or the answer led them to the point they reached.  When we twist morality to serve politics, we damage even more than individuals; we threaten the society upon which all our hopes for human betterment depend.

Photo Credit: Jessica Matthews