Paula

Ya know, Greg, it truly amazes me that the US Constitution lasted as long as it did (I consider it pretty much shredded now). It presumed upon the moral fiber of the people, but that fiber can’t be dictated. As I blogged about Here, convictions can’t be enforced, and the beginning of decay is when people forget why they have them at all.

I don’t remember who said it, but I think it was a Puritan who realized the irony of the Protestant work ethic, in that it would inevitably result in greed and materialism. It only takes a light push to move from responsible provision to competing to “win the game”. And it is inherent in evil to take advantage of good, because evil plays by its own immoral rules. So unless every individual in a society is morally strong, evil will take over in time.

Yet the solution is not to enforce stronger rules, or to increase the police force. Any society– or church– that resorts to such strong-arm tactics has already lost the war. Moral decay is defeat. The solution, then, is to keep passing down morality, not by decree but by example. And that’s why the NT teaches this model; evil cannot prevail against it. But it always prevails against hierarchy, because hierarchy is its native language.