Morality Must Triumph Over Feelings

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.’ (Galatians 6:1)

For those of us who call Florida home, our recent election had what I call a ‘legal victory over an issue of morality’, namely the defeat of the Amendment 4 which would have made a state constitutional right for abortion, at any moment in the fetal timeline whether in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd trimester. While Amendment 4 was not passed by the voters, it is concerning that a majority voted ‘yes’ or in favor of the amendment, with 58% affirming it (while needing 60% to pass).

It is likely to come up again for a vote, and for us who are Christians, we cannot simply rest on the results of this election and expect the same results. The fact is if 58% affirmed abortion, we have failed in reaching the majority of the people in Florida with the Gospel of Christ. Abortion has never been a legal issue as much as it is a moral one. If the people have Godly morals, a law for abortion need not exist, but the need is there because of the majority of people (58% in this case) having immorality against the precepts of God.

The pundits for abortion, during the months and days prior to the election, bombarded the airwaves with messages that attempted to play into the feelings and emotions of voters. Abortion was needed, in the messaging, to prevent rape and incest victims from carrying and later caring for their attacker’s child. A non-viable fetus could be aborted to save the trauma of a birth of physically or mentally disabled child. A woman’s life may be saved if she was allowed to terminate a pregnancy that threatened her life.

These messages were meant to ‘tug at the heart-strings’ and play on the feelings of those who care for the needs of others. The temptation is in the feelings we have that abhor rape and incest, and we don’t want to see others suffer pain or affliction, whether the person is a child, an adult, or an infant. Our feelings can be used to override the morality of life and the facts. We hear ‘if it saves just one life’ but at what cost, in terms of not only unborn children, but also in other instances freedoms in other facets of our existence?

Like abortion, euthanasia can be described as something beneficial or done out of mercy.  Gun control actions often portray gun ownership as being ‘anti-Christian’ in that guns promote violence, which goes against the belief that Jesus is about love, and love never allows violence.  Both of these viewpoints as described by pundits as wrong, and not in following God’s will.  The proponents of such measures, and of ‘woke’ philosophies in general, misconstrue God’s Word, and twist it to fit their proposition, rather than to take God’s Word and modify their views to match God’s.

Christians today can be (and often are) persuaded that evil can be ‘justified in some cases’, or that certain actions that are good can be called ‘evil’.  A basic belief for abortions in cases of rape or incest, or to prevent a life-defining birth defect, and one can see this as perhaps prudent to have abortions legal.  But then we saw the abortion demands increase, to where it became ‘abortions on demand’, even in some states promoting ‘post-birth abortions’ (aka infanticide); China at one point enforcing mandatory abortions on parents having more than one child, with the consequence of female fetuses being aborted as they were not as favorable as male children. 

Likewise, ‘no violence’ has morphed from one without provocation assaulting another person to where now one is considered to be ‘violent’ if they choose to defend themselves, their family or others from a violent attack. ‘Violence’ as a word is now defined in some jurisdictions (like California) as the use of incorrect wording, such as using improper gender or racial pronouns when addressing someone. 

We have to take great care to not allow evil in; the Christian does not what people to suffer needlessly.  There are times we must make ‘life or death’ decisions, but the line is does that decision promote or dissuade God’s hand in having control of that life? For personal experience, I made the decision to stop mechanical life support for my Dad, who was comatose and brain-dead from a clot, and for my mother to be removed from a ventilator after she became unconscious without response. 

However, these actions did not promote euthanasia as they allowed the natural process of dying to continue as God intended, and did not speed up the process.  Dad passed within an hour in a natural way.  Mom actually woke up and for almost a week was in and out of consciousness to allow her and the family to say ‘goodbye’ and have closure with her. The decision for their lives to end was not upon me, but upon the Lord to take them when it was time, in His timing. 

We as Christians need to defend those who are in trouble and not just look away.  In many cases, we may have to resort to violence to defend ourselves or others, even though that is not preferred.  We do not want to be violent as a matter of principle, but if it is to defend ourselves or others it may be required to stop evil.  A ‘micro’ example is if we see someone in church hitting another person who can’t defend themself, and we step in and perhaps need to be physical to stop the attack;  a ‘macro’ example is World War II, where the US and its allies fought to stop the violence perpetrated by the Fascist powers of the Axis nations.   The question we must ask ourselves is what is Righteous?  Is being ‘woke’ Righteous?  Is stopping evil, by opposing it or by defending ‘good’, Righteous?

The key is we cannot condone evil, we cannot be weak in order to be ‘meek’.  We must show our Love, not by what society says is showing love (killing off the elderly, aborting the unborn, allowing crime and assaults to occur) but by doing what is Righteous, and we must also – gently but firmly – stand up and lovingly disagree and attempt to show those who do condone wrongdoing why they are wrong, and we cannot allow the compromising of God’s precepts to ‘get along’.