Moral versus Moralistic

There are people with Christian morals and then there are moralistic Christians. What’s the difference and which are you?

People with Christian morals are humble, just, and compassionateMoralistic Christians are proud, corrupt, and indifferentPeople with Christian morals traffic in servanthood, peace, and impartialityMoralistic Christians are self-righteously superior, power abusers, and bigoted

Who was it that gave Jesus the hardest time and turned him over to be killed? Those with morals or the moralistic? It was those who knew the Bible the best (its contents, not its heart) that signed off on his execution. Moralism murdered Jesus and has murdered millions since.

Some of the worst wickedness in the world can found in the heart of the moralistic religious person. In her famous novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee wrote, “Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another).”

Under the banner of the cross, 4th century Emperor Constantine fomented brutal crusades against Muslims in the Holy Land. 12th century Catholic Inquisitors tortured Protestant “heretics,” Jews, and Muslims. Anabaptists were persecuted by both Protestants and Catholics in the 16th and 17th centuries, because they were irked by their interpretation of Scripture and how they lived the Christ-shaped life. Some of Hitler’s most loyal supporters during the Holocaust were members of the German Christian church. Most of the abusive slave owners in our own southern states were Bible-toting, church-going, hymn-singing folk.

Which is worse, irreligious humanism or inhuman religion? Christian missionary E. Stanley Jones quoting Shakespeare commented, ‘”Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds’ and religion corrupted is most evil-smelling.”

Is Christ or Christianity (or most other religions for that matter) at fault? Should we downplay morality or avoid it altogether because of these perversions of the true version? Can one be moral without becoming moralistic?

Fundamentals versus Fundamentalism

Another term for moralism is fundamentalism. Someone said, “You know if you’re a fundamentalist if the only two colors in your box of crayons are black and white!” Christian fundamentalists redact most of the nuance from their Bibles and their love for their neighbors. They know a lot about God, but aren’t very well acquainted with him. A.W. Tozer said that “fundamentalism is just orthodoxy without the Holy Ghost!”

The fundamentals of Christianity are to a fundamentalist the sum total of the faith rather than what (Who) those fundamentals point to. “Fundamentalists,” says David French, “are on a search for heretics rather than a quest for converts.”

Fundamentalists tend to be angry people. Kevin Williamson said, “Anger makes you stupid, self-righteous anger makes you stupid and dangerous.” That’s pretty hard to deny after what we all saw on January 6, 2021. Apparently, Islam isn’t the only religion with its violent fundamentalists!

Speaking of January 6, one particularly dangerous yet popular subset of fundamentalism is Christian Nationalism. This is patriotism gone wild mixed with “Christianity lite” (i.e., a superficial, unthinking, lukewarm version of the faith). It’s dangerous because, as N.T. Wright says, it “seeks a kingdom without a cross [and] pursues a victory without mercy. It acclaims God’s love of power rather than the power of God’s love.”

In the mid-20th century C.S. Lewis spoke of what he called a “pernicious” type of patriotism. He reminded his own England that not all versions of patriotism are created equal. “On the lunatic fringe, he said, “it may shade off into that popular racialism (racism) which Christianity and science equally forbid.” That’s the fringe that we must do everything we can to keep it from seeping into our faith. This is the “yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” that Jesus warned us about (Matthew 16:6).

This doesn’t mean true faith involves no “fundamentals” (essential beliefs and behaviors). It depends, of course, on what fundamentals one holds. Christ in you, living his life through you, are fundamentals that can’t be taken too seriously. Love of God and people can never become anything but fundamental to real Christianity.

The morals or the fundamentals that Jesus taught are not the problem. The fault lies in those of us who insist on making them idols we possess for pride’s sake. It’s when we become obsessed with being right over doing right, with precepts over people, when looking good to people preempts being good and godly people.

Fundamentalism is not the result of taking faith too seriously as some assume. So they lower the temperature to lukewarm. Its cure is just the opposite, to take it with supreme seriousness. Yes, zeal without knowledge or wisdom can be dangerous. But a knowledgeable and wise zeal can rock the world!  The great missionary, C.T. Studd said when asked if he would leave everything and everyone behind to live and probably die in the middle of unreached Africa: “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”

Give everything over to Jesus––your pride, any addiction ou might have to being right, especially your need to be more right than others. Lay down ay self-induced, self-promotional moralism. Don’t allow your morals or your faith’s fundamentals to become trophies on display. Rather, regard them as internal incentives for and evidences of Jesus living his life in and through you for his glory and the good of others.

[Hey, check out “How to Know if You’re a Legalist” Part 1 of 4 is here.]