When it comes to politics, I believe in a peculiar paradox. I believe there is (and will be one day) a single, objectively true form of government. I believe it will be close to a communist, theocratic monarchy. On the other hand, I live in and believe in improving a form of governance today, a capitalist, democratic republic toward conservative and libertarian practicalities. As such, I sometimes confuse myself and state the ideal when the pragmatic is being discussed and vice-versa. I’m a terrible debater.
The most recent argument that got me into such trouble was when I recently stated that I have no problem with legislating morality. Idealistically, I believe this to be completely true. Pragmatically, the question is not so easy to answer. For example, I believe that voting for Proposition 8 in California was the correct idealistic move to define marriage according to orthodox morality. Yet, it does not really confront the spiritual issues that are at the heart of the matter. As such, Proposition 8 will probably have very little affect addressing the issue other than to make opponents angry.
What effectively took me out of the argument for that moment was my attempt to state that I believe legislating morality is an okay thing to do. The response was (my paraphrase), “The problem is that you either must assume your moral beliefs will always be in control, which is always going to be false, or that legislating other forms of morality is okay.” If I had been more forceful, I should have answered: “First, one day, I’ve been promised that my morality will be perfected and made permanent. Second, I reject the moral equivalence the latter part of your argument suggests as fallacious.” I didn’t, which is why I’m now taking the easy way out and just explaining it here for giggles.
As promised in Philippians 2:11, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” One day Jesus will take his place as the King of All and provide perfect administration of His government. Until then, we lived in a cursed (Genesis 3:17) and depraved (Romans 3:23) world in which no good cannot be twisted to evil, but for which every evil is ultimately turned to good (Romans 8:28). Until then, no system will work correctly and all are subject to the flaws of human nature. But as long as I have suffrage, I will struggle to decide between that which is morally right and that which is pragmatically achievable.
Cheers.
