First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 1 Timothy 1.1, 2

All practices which demean human beings, degrading them to the level of animals or things, rather than the image-bearers of God, are out of accord with the interests of godliness and dignity.

So, for example, practices which demean women and corrupt human sexuality should not be tolerated. We have seen what happens in a society where individual pleasure is the guiding norm for sexual behavior. To the extent that public policy encourages or allows such an approach to sexuality, it shares responsibility for the many ills that attend to it – broken homes, abused spouses, widespread pornography, rape and violence against women and children, STDs, and so forth.

The culture of permissiveness, encouraged by public policies wrapped in the garb of “free speech” and “individual rights”, has corrupted our view of human sexuality and is destroying the institutions intended to preserve and cause to flourish a view of sexuality which is noble, honorable, edifying, and dignified.

Whatever demeans human beings, pandering to our base desires and leading us to lives of corruption, dependency, or dishonor must be opposed by government. Gambling does not dignify the human soul. Certain forms of pop culture demean not only women, but men, and encourage violence and unbridled self-indulgence. Should such entertainments be accorded the protection and encouragement of law?

It can sound very “puritanical” and perhaps even a bit tyrannical to try to use law to restrain the baser affections and inclinations of the human soul. But we are already doing so in our society. We are already using law to restrain behaviors which all agree are not to be tolerated, and we have done so as a society from the beginning of the American experiment.

The problem today is that we keep lowering the bar of what we will tolerate, and thus we degrade the terms of human dignity, adjust our legal standards accordingly, and incur the problems such degradation brings with it.

We use law to promote and protect human dignity in the Church because we know the Church cannot fulfill its mission unless we are bringing holiness to completion in the fear of the Lord (2 Cor. 7:1). Hence, the practices of teaching, disciple-making, and church discipline.

Similarly, no society can be truly good, or promote human flourishing, that tolerates – more, endorses – behaviors that drag the human soul down into degradation. Michael Vick spent time in prison for promoting dog-fighting; yet professional fighters may tear and kick and slam one another freely, all in good fun (and for big bucks all around). Why is it demeaning to watch dogs fight and not men? Augustine’s journey to faith began in earnest as he came to realize how demeaning to human dignity were the gladiatorial combats and other “entertainments” in which he had become involved.

As long as we encourage people to set dignity aside for the sake of mere entertainment, we’re only hardening their consciences against the realities of sin and depriving them of their high calling and potential as image-bearers of God.

T. M. Moore

Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition. Does the Law of God still apply today? Order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, and study the question for yourself.