Martin Luther King was one of the most prophetic voices of the 20th century, not simply for Civil Rights, but for the Church. Following are a series of random quotes that should give the Church a fresh perspective on laws and their moral value. (By the way, I am not proposing that Martin Luther King would have endorsed marijuana.)
“But we must go on to say that while it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, behavior can be regulated.”
“It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.”
“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”
”Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”
“The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”
“We must realize that Jesus was nailed to the cross not simply by sin but also by blindness”
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”
Back to the Point
There is a very significant purpose for laws and I believe it is the responsibility of Christians to honor the laws of whatever nation they are in. I also believe that Christians, if they choose to vote, should vote in a way which reflects their values. Even though I feel that Christian values are far too complicated to be reflected in either political paradigm, if you feel this is best represented within allegiance toward a particular political party then party loyalty is understandable. But when laws are used as a way to validate the values of the Church then we have made laws an idol. Jesus’ crime was that he challenged the power structure of the ancient world. A central goal of Christ was to change the political structure and the abuse of power and wealth of the Romans and religious elite. Rarely did he blatantly break the laws of the land and often encouraged His followers to obey the laws of the land. Many of His teachings were directly related to Roman or religious laws or how the culture surrounding the political landscape of His day. He never used violence in His protests, but did take on the system head on. There is no doubt that Christ was politically astute and socially driven. But despite all His political activism and social protests, Christ was securely focused on one thing: the Kingdom of God.
During the last presidential debate faith and religion were central issues. Christian conservatives became a divided force struggling between the moral authority of the Republican Party and the social compassion of the Democratic Party. Christians who had a more liberal slant argued with the rest of America that it was time to embrace the mercy and grace of Christ and vote Democrat. In the midst of the upheaval Christians were forced to ask themselves what is the true place for politics in the Christian life. Despite the valuable insight gained during this historic time in Christian political thinking, Christians ultimately voted according to what they believed should be the legal standard. This act became an exercise in Christian elitism as well as displaying insecurity in the value of faith beyond the Word of God alone.
Despite what we may want to believe regarding the development of what we, as Christians, believe today, the simple truth is that much of what we believe is the result of political and social change and the subsequent response of the Church. The cultural influences of the world have aided and hindered the Church many times over throughout history and will continue to do so. Much of what we believe today as absolute truth within the Body of Christ will change dramatically over the next few decades and the Christians of tomorrow will embrace the new truths with the same amount of vitality. And many of these changes in the ways we view truth will be sharply formed by what is happening politically. The Christians of tomorrow will also likely shape their understanding of what is right or wrong by what is or is not legal. The challenge for the Christian of tomorrow is the same as the challenge for the Christian of today: how are we going to shape what is right and what is wrong both within the context of the law and beyond the limitations of government?
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