In his book Culture Shift, Al Mohler writes, “Ominous signs of moral collapse and cultural decay now appear on our contemporary horizon. A society ready to put the institution of marriage up for demolition and transformation is a society losing its most basic moral sense.” (p.5). Dr. Mohler’s statement quite rightly presupposes that there is such a thing as a “basic moral sense,” otherwise it could not be in jeopardy of being lost. President Obama also expressed such a moral sense when, in his international prayer breakfast speech, he said that the diverse faiths represented there all agree that it is wrong to kill innocent human beings. So here are two things our society’s “most basic moral sense” knows are wrong – the demolition and transformation of marriage and the killing of innocent human beings. Yet since our new president has taken office, laws defending both marriage and the lives of innocent human beings are in jeopardy of being over-turned. Yes indeed, there are ominous signs of moral collapse on our contemporary horizon, as our society ignores and suppresses the “most basic moral sense.”
So where did this “most basic moral sense” come from? John Dewey, the late 19th early 20th century philosopher and author of the book, “ A Common Faith,” said it has always been implicitly the common faith of mankind. But since Dewey was an evolutionist he didn’t recognize morality as coming from the Creator. It just evolved as the human animal struggled to survive. It’s a product of evolution. Dewey didn’t see the moral sense as being suppressed. It’s just there hovering on the edge of consciousness. It remains for our Democratic society to make it explicit and militant, and that is what our culture, which has accepted the legacy of American pragmatists such as Dewey is doing. God-given faith and morality is being demolished and replaced by a man-made substitute.
Let’s contrast that with what the Bible says about that “basic moral sense.” Roma 1:20 says that “…since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” The basic moral sense was given by God – built into His creation of mankind. But it has been suppressed by sin. God made his moral order explicit and militant when He gave the moral law to Moses as a refresher course in what man already knew but had chosen to ignore. Our culture today continues to suppress and ignore that basic moral sense. Even more ominous is the fact that our leaders no longer have a God-given refresher course to bring to consciousness the distortions that have crept into that basic moral sense because of sin. As in Nazi Germany, our culture “has discarded its beliefs in God and the Bible like a worn out garment.” (Thank you Alex for that wonderfully descriptive phrase). A morality without God is being made explicit and militant.
