What makes a good football team?
It needs players that can play defensively and those who can play offensively. Evangelism also needs both the defence of truth and a solid offence against the alternatives. While we don’t want to be ‘offensive’, we do need to present a reasoned objection to what else is on offer!
During the gay marriage debate many Christians have been drawn into defensive positions. We want to defend biblical morality, traditional values and marriage. However, we need to remember that apologetics is not only defence, it also means taking on the alternatives.
Nasty old Theodosius?
Many of us have written letters to MPs regarding the gay marriage legislation. That makes for a very interesting exchange of ideas. One of the members of our church received a reply from her MP, who was in favour of the legislation, making the point that the ban on gay marriage was not universal and was common in the ancient world. He pointed out: ‘It was not outlawed until the Theodocian legal code of 342 AD prohibited it’. He was implying that our marriage norm, the quaint and unusual practice of Judeo-Christianity, was only imposed when Christianity gained influence and nasty old Emperor Theodosius abolished the alternatives. Such a suggestion presents a great opportunity to pose some counter-questions.
Were Greece and Rome so good?
What else was outlawed under the reign of Emperor Constantine and the nominally Christian emperors who followed him? Infanticide, the exposing of newborn babies to die alone and unwanted, was a common form of abortion at birth practised in the classical world. It was outlawed in the newly Christianised Roman Empire. It was also during this time that crucifixion was banned, along with the persecution of Christians. Does the fact that a practice was widespread in the ancient world mean it should be a morally acceptable for us? And if the practices of classical Greece and Rome become our standards for today, then what other moral reformations are in peril? Do we need to reconsider the age of consent (it was acceptable for children in the classical world) and what about incest (quite normal among ancient rulers)?
The heart of the question we should pose is whether we believe that there are objective moral standards. If there are none, then there is no such thing as moral progress. Like a shifting coastline, moral norms will be reshaped by the tides of fashion.
Moral progress?
As C.S. Lewis put in his classic, Mere Christianity: ‘Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer … the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man’. What does our society aspire to? What is our moral standard? How do we define the meaning of the golden rule? In Christ there is an answer; outside of him that question needs to be asked.
Chris Sinkinson is pastor of Alderholt Chapel. He also lectures in Apologetics at Moorlands College, Christchurch, Dorset.
