The Federalist published a very moving and eminently sensible piece this morning by Mark Signorelli with the catchy title, “If We Can’t Distinguish Between God & Satan, Society’s Going to Hell”. The gist of it is that America prides itself on being a nation based on the rule of law, but of what benefit is that to say if your laws can’t properly distinguish between the very elementary concepts of good and evil? Good laws give you things like statutes against violent crimes such as murder and rape, as well as consumer protections and fair tax laws. Bad laws give you things like eminent domain, federal employment quotas that favor numbers over merit, and Roger Goodell as the NFL Commissioner.
Signorelli’s argument is very similar to the one that William Doherty used in his book Soul Searching: Why Psychotherapy Must Promote Moral Responsibility. In the book, Doherty argues that modern psychotherapy has depended on the moral ‘scaffolding’ that a nation based on Judeo-Christian values would provide. Therapists allowed the rest of the world’s behavior to dictate what was ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, while simply telling its patients to adjust themselves accordingly if they felt like it. Doherty posed the question – rightly, I believe – “what happens when that scaffolding disappears?”
Signorelli paints a picture very much like by using the imagery of a father and son strolling through the woods and the son asks his father which trees bear fruit that is safe to eat and which are poisonous. The father responds to the question with a shrug of his shoulders and says, “you’re on your own on that, son”, leaving the child to his own devices. The boy, unprepared, is now confronted with the enormity of life’s choices with little, if any, direction from a person who is directly charged with teaching him. One of three things await the son: he will be extraordinarily lucky, he will choose badly and suffer for it, he will simply be paralyzed by his own fear and starve to death.
There is actually one fourth alternative that I suppose the indolent father in Signorelli’s example could pray for, provided he was willing to admit there is a God (chances are, the father isn’t that motivated if he isn’t bothering to keep his son from eating a poisonous plant). The other ending to this story is that his son is smart enough to watch what everyone else is eating and taking note who happens to be falling over dead afterward. We are treated daily to news stories of children making unwise choices because they lack discernment, beating, stabbing, or shooting their classmates with a gun they didn’t acquire by following the commandments of a nation dedicated to the rule of law. Moral starvation and bad decisions steeped in a tea of parental neglect seem to be reigning supreme.
I understand Signorelli’s concern and I share it with him. But, the sad truth of the matter is that mankind has always had trouble with the concept of right and wrong and needed guidance. Not only that, in our deepest need for that direction, we’ve chosen to reject it. In the nation of Judah’s darkest hour, despite his earnest pleadings to repentance, Jeremiah knew where the heart of the people lay. “Man’s way is not in himself,” he wrote, knowing that it was man’s innate nature to reject sound counsel and simply follow his own heart (Jer. 10:23). Never mind that it led to the abject destruction of the Jewish nation, the sacking of Jerusalem, and a decimated populace whose surviving members were kept in captivity as slaves by the Babylonian empire in 586 B.C. In roughly seventy years, the Jewish Remnant would return to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, but the kingdom never regained the prominence or influence it held before and would be in a near-constant state of occupation by foreign powers. So much for the wisdom of man.
Since that time, more than two millennia has passed to add to man’s wisdom and it doesn’t appear that it has done much good. Sure, we’ve cured polio, but now we’re confused about what bathroom to use. Jeremiah, it would seem, is just as right about man’s judgement (or the lack thereof) today as he was then. This suggests that man is either stubborn or notoriously dim-witted. Since that time, men like Signorelli and Doherty have been like the Woman of Wisdom found in Proverbs 8, calling out to their fellow man of the value found in wisdom. You’d think by this time, the Woman of Wisdom would have just posted an ad on Craigslist.
By denying the evil found even in the mere imagery of Satan, mankind has again proved itself immune to wisdom. Stupidity breeds bad laws. A nation ruled entirely by law, but doesn’t bother to differentiate between good and evil, may as well be ruled by the information found in the Nutrition Facts label on a package of Twinkies. A hardened atheist trying to lose weight who remarks “cupcakes are Satan” recognizes the evil of complex carbohydrates, if nothing else. The nation of Judah couldn’t figure that out. I doubt we’re any smarter.
Signorelli warns the reader, the Constitution cannot save us. I argue that the Framers never really intended it to. I will not enter Heaven by adhering to the Code of Federal Regulations or the Texas State Penal Code. I might not even be a very good person, because either of those govern the bare minimum of expected human behavior and have since they were written. Adultery makes you a horrible human being. It doesn’t land you in prison. There was a much stricter set of rules to follow, and many of the Framers of the Constitution wrote about them often. I agree with Mr. Signorelli on this point: perhaps it’s time to revisit those rules, they’re a much stronger guiding light than the one we have now.
The Dented Vessel 