IDEOLOGY FUELS MORALITY (OR IMMORALITY)

With the oral arguments over the same-sex marriage case now concluded, it comes time for our nine justices to discuss, digest, and deliberate the case before issuing a ruling (and dissent) in late June. Never before has it been so imperative that Christians pray to the Lord to plead the case before the eternal Supreme Court to which even our American Court must answer for its rulings.

Having said that, I would like to comment on the moral state of our nation. It is moving downward so rapidly, I hesitate to use the term "spiral" any longer. The trajectory of moral decline in America is, as I have said before, like a snowball rolling down a mountain. Taking the inclined plane of the mountain side, and the force of sinful, immoral gravity pulling on the snowball, more and more mass accumulates along the way, making the whole ball have more momentum every day it moves downward. It is consuming the entire nation. Liberal voices everywhere praise its progress, while the communities of our nation are eroding from its destructive force.

And this is not new. These things have happened before in human history – though not over the issue of gay marriage. Moral decline comes in many forms. America's includes the declines that many other nations have faced in history – a secularism, diminished view of the sanctity of life, reticence to heed to ethical concerns in research and scientific applications, educational systems used to indoctrinate children out of any faith at all, politicians willing to do whatever the highest bidder wishes, and an anti-faith attitude. Places like France (its bloody Revolution during the turn of the 19^th century), Russia with the deposition of the Czar in 1917, Germany under Hitler, Italy under Mussolini, and China under Mao Tse Tung. That is more recent history. Throughout the centuries of humanity, these things have happened.
And while this is not new, I hope to cause a few of my readers to pause and consider the effects of their liberal, immoral, anti-Christian ideology. And to be honest, it is ideology that fuels this American Revolution now underway. When a person jettisons the idea that there is a God to whom he is accountable, he is "free" to do as he pleases with no regard to consequences – for there are none. But that person gambles with eternity. When a family of people hold to this same idea, the family becomes a force for the community to deal with. When a community becomes indoctrinated this way, society at large, and the state specifically must deal with it. When a state is filled with communities, filled with families, filled with people who hold this view, the nation must deal with it. When the nation is filled with states filled with communities filled with families filled with people – it is truly a problem of global consequences. We consider the threat of global terrorism and those nations who sponsor it to be a global issue. It is the ideology of those nations that fuels terrorist actions. We are truly fighting a global war of world-views. And people die in that war!

I intended to try to articulate the moral state of the United States today. Before our Supreme Court is the question, "what consequences will be encountered by our nation if we adopt this policy of a 'fundamental right to gay marriage'?" While that is not the stated question of the case, it is the question that some of our justices probed during oral arguments yesterday. The answer will be very revealing. But so is the spin put on the view of America by those who want most to influence its outcome – our press corps. There are those on both sides of the issue, and their biases in polling and reporting are evident. I offer you two cases in point:

1. USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/04/28/audio-transcript-supreme-court-gay-marriage-oral-arguments/26516157/ . This link takes you to a page that is supposed to be an audio transcript of the oral arguments. However, the links to hear it are pictures of Americans who are demonstrating in favor of making same-sex marriage legal – completely! There isn't one picture on the page of the opposing view!
2. Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/04/28/supreme-court-hears-historic-same-sex-marriage-arguments/ . This link takes you to a page that is supposed to be a fair and balanced report of the oral arguments. However, there is, at the top of the page, a video link regarding the spin of the 2016 candidates – and that video link begins with one of the same pictures as is found on the USA Today link above – of people demonstrating in favor of the legality of same-sex marriage. While the discussion below highlights the uncertain direction of the decision, it also highlights the conservative portion of the oral arguments. By that, I mean the arguments as to why the High Court should NOT rule in favor of making same-sex marriage a fundamental, constitutional right.

Biases are clear. These reports leave out the demonstrators from the right and highlight the abundance of demonstrators on the left. However, there were as many of the right demonstrators outside the Supreme Court building as the left.

But the moral change in our nation is also clear. In an effort to be unbiased, LifewayResearch.com reports (http://www.mbcpathway.com/2015/04/28/gay-marriage-gap-widens-for-evangelicals-culture/) that morality seems to be moved by contact with those who are already well into the new movement. The graph below should help you understand what I mean. When a person has a friend who is "gay", he is more likely to want it to be OK in society than those who have no such "gay" friends. To me, this begs the question: have we gotten to the point where happiness supersedes all other sensibilities?

There is another sign of moral change: a departure from faith. People in the pews do not accept the views of the people in the pulpit. Ed Stetzer is quoted (in the MBCPathway link above): "Church leaders have traditionally been seen as the champions of all things moral in society," Stetzer said. "As public perceptions of morality change, pastors find themselves in an increasingly unpopular position." Pastors were very influential at bringing in the 1^st Amendment before ratification of the Constitution could happen. Today, pastors are being marginalized rapidly. Their influence is waning quickly. When pastors become the only people of faith, the "fundamental transformation of America" promised with the election of President Obama will be complete. America will be secularized, and morality will be defined by the whim of the state. Life will have no meaning, and death will all around us all the time. We will be socialized – in ideology AND in practice. And I believe with that, America's place on the world stage will no longer be as the "good guy" – we will become the "bad guy" like the USSR, Italy, Germany, China, and all other nations with a dictator and a semblance of secular socialism have been. 

I hate to forecast these troubling times. However, I would be less than honest to think that unless our nation (and this year, our nation stands on the decision of the US Supreme Court) turns to a more moral ideology, we will continue to decline as we have been for the last 50+ years. These results and many I have not yet stated will come to pass. They must. They are the only outcome that any similar nation has experienced. If we do the same things, why would we expect a different result? That would be the definition of insanity.

And that's how it is, As I See It, for today. I only ask you to "choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord!" (Joshua 24:15) For in Him is my only hope!