In the Western world we are experiencing a moral revolution. There is now a new morality. Things that have always been regarded as wrong are now right. What was right is now wrong. Positive words are used to give the impression that this is all for the better. Promoting the new morality is “progressive”. Politicians tell us that what they are doing is ‘the right thing to do’. This hardly ever means they are doing what is morally right, but that it is the right pragmatic policy or action to deal with the problem. The new morality involves key words and ideas, ‘freedom’, ‘choice’, ‘inclusion’, ‘equality’, ‘discrimination’, and ‘human rights’. Armed with these concepts you can justify almost any action and present anyone who disagrees as a ‘bigot’ or a ‘hater’ and even arrest them.
But morality is fundamental to the lives of every one of us and to the health of any society. Being honest matters. Working hard is good. Being faithful to our marriage partners is vital to social stability. Respecting people who are different from us is a fundamental principle. Disagreeing with people of another faith or feeling certain actions are wrong is not ‘intolerant or ‘phobic’ but arises from moral convictions and spiritual beliefs.
Disagreeing does not imply moral superiority and should always be done in a respectful way. A devout Muslim may fundamentally disagree with a Christian who believes that Jesus is the Son of God, but that doesn’t mean they are ‘Christian-phobic’, literally that they are afraid of Christians or Christianity. Nor does it imply that disagreement must always lead to active hostility. I have personal friends who are Muslims, Hindus, agnostics and atheists. Love for one another transcends fundamental differences of religious belief and practice.
The new morality is not tolerant of those who disagree but demands that all must conform or else suffer the consequences. Freedom of speech is denied to some people, and some speakers are denied a platform. Intellectually able people say that all thoughts of an eternal God must be discounted. There is no vertical dimension in the new morality, no-one to whom we are ultimately accountable. Bertrand Russell said that when he met God, in whom he didn’t believe, he would say, “Not enough evidence God, not enough evidence.”
God has given us two great commandments and has written them on our hearts. Jesus reaffirmed them when he said, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’, and ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”