- Jan 18, 2019
- 978
- 283
- 65
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Christian
- Marital Status
- Married
I’m increasingly convinced that the real issue beneath many of our political, moral, and cultural failures is not simply which system we choose, but whether its guiding mores are genuinely shared rather than imposed.
Any community without commonly held moral commitments will eventually fragment. At a global scale, a world that denies universal moral reference points has no principled way to resist violence or corruption—only temporary power arrangements. History suggests those arrangements do not hold.
This helps explain why the former USSR did not collapse merely because communism was economically flawed, but because Marxist ideals were imposed rather than embraced. Compliance replaced conviction. That moral dissonance was compounded by widespread corruption among the leadership, whose relative luxury stood in stark hypocrisy to the egalitarian ideals they espoused. Once legitimacy was lost, cohesion followed. Capitalism is not immune to the same fate; when it degenerates into crony capitalism and becomes rife with corruption, it too loses moral credibility.
All of this brings us to the God question, and more specifically to Jesus—arguably the most radically counterintuitive moral figure in human history. His teachings invert every instinct of power and survival: strength through weakness, love of enemies, living at peace when possible, going the second mile when coerced to go one. In this sense, Jesus stands even against nature itself, which operates by survival of the fittest. His ethic does not arise from biology, self-interest, or power; it directly contradicts them.
Crucially, Jesus does not impose this moral vision. He invites it. His kingdom advances only where hearts are transformed, never by coercion. That alone sets Him apart from every political ideology. And it may be precisely why His teachings remain both so disruptive—and so enduring.
Any community without commonly held moral commitments will eventually fragment. At a global scale, a world that denies universal moral reference points has no principled way to resist violence or corruption—only temporary power arrangements. History suggests those arrangements do not hold.
This helps explain why the former USSR did not collapse merely because communism was economically flawed, but because Marxist ideals were imposed rather than embraced. Compliance replaced conviction. That moral dissonance was compounded by widespread corruption among the leadership, whose relative luxury stood in stark hypocrisy to the egalitarian ideals they espoused. Once legitimacy was lost, cohesion followed. Capitalism is not immune to the same fate; when it degenerates into crony capitalism and becomes rife with corruption, it too loses moral credibility.
All of this brings us to the God question, and more specifically to Jesus—arguably the most radically counterintuitive moral figure in human history. His teachings invert every instinct of power and survival: strength through weakness, love of enemies, living at peace when possible, going the second mile when coerced to go one. In this sense, Jesus stands even against nature itself, which operates by survival of the fittest. His ethic does not arise from biology, self-interest, or power; it directly contradicts them.
Crucially, Jesus does not impose this moral vision. He invites it. His kingdom advances only where hearts are transformed, never by coercion. That alone sets Him apart from every political ideology. And it may be precisely why His teachings remain both so disruptive—and so enduring.
