Table of Contents
Ming Chen
This article’s purpose is to throw down the gauntlet, albeit in a friendly manner, against conservatives who are not Christian. I primarily have atheists or agnostics in mind. My central thesis is that Christianity supports three conservative ideals best: dialogue, moral claims and ultimate vision. I believe, therefore, that if we desire to be true and consistent conservatives, we must be Christians.
Firstly, genuine dialogue has been spurned in today’s society. We hear the common refrain: my truth is my truth and your truth is yours. If you so much as hint at an objective truth claim, then so much the worse for you. On the other extreme of discourse lie the acerbic polemics on social media platforms like X. If anyone disagrees with me over some minor point, let him be hanged, drawn and quartered.
Christianity rejects both extremes. In Christ, we have a model of both grace and truth (John 1:17). Against those sceptical of objective truth, Christ claimed to be the Truth (John 14:6), with all emphasis on the definite article. Against the bitterness of social media, Jesus demonstrated great love and patience. He called and offered rest to those who “labour and are heavy laden” for he is “gentle and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:28-29). Grace without truth is saccharine and licentious. Truth without grace is barbarism. In Christ alone, both are perfectly balanced.
Secondly, conservatives make many admirable moral claims and fight for these against those who seek to destroy traditional morality.
Abortion is the murder of a human child. Homosexuality destroys individuals, family and society. Changing gender is both impossible and extremely detrimental. I assume that most readers of this article would agree on these. However, what justifies these moral claims?
Perhaps one could make arguments from observable facts in the world: these things are unnatural and contradict biology. Life begins at fertilisation, homosexual relationships are literally fruitless, chromosomes are generally either XX or XY and so on. However, without the Christian belief that God has created a world that is good (Genesis 1:10, etc.) and that people are intrinsically valuable and made in his image (Genesis 1:27), why should we protest when things subvert this world’s design or reject human worth? If God has not made nature, which is objectively good, why is going against nature objectively bad?
Broadly speaking, moral claims against abortion and other evils only gain coherence when established within a Christian framework. These evils are not merely against the natural ordering of things or against humanity but crimes against a Creation that was made by a Creator. To rage against nature is merely foolish and futile; to rage against the Creator is treason and objective evil.
Perhaps a case study to illustrate the importance of a Christian basis for morality will be helpful. Peter Singer, an Australian moral philosopher, defines a person as a “being who is capable of anticipating the future, of having wants and desires for the future”. This philosophical definition precludes fetuses; thus it is no wonder that Singer is pro-abortion. I believe that the best rebuttal to Singer is the objective claim of Christian ethics that all people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). If we disconnect personhood from this objective reality and base it in fluctuating capabilities, like anticipating the future or cognitive ability, then we deprive those with dementia, mentally disabled, and so on, of their personhood.
Thirdly, when we think of conservatism, there must be a vision or purpose. Instead of trying to anticipate what other peoples’ visions may be, I will present my own. I have already mentioned that Christianity views people as made in God’s image. The materialist view that humans are merely physical entities is false, for Christians are endowed with immaterial souls. Therefore, it will do little good to care for babies’ physical lives or those struggling with gender dysphoria if we do not also care for their eternal souls.
All men are sinners (Romans 3:23), having transgressed the law of God. We need the hope of Christ who “came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). Anybody who believes in Jesus has “eternal life” (John 3:16). God acquits us of the legal guilt we incur because of our sins and sees us clothed in Jesus’ righteousness earned by his perfect life of obedience (2 Corinthians 5:21) when we simply trust in Jesus, and, looking to him, forsake and repent of our sins.
This salvation is a free gift. Isaiah 55:1 expresses it beautifully: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” I vividly remember talking to a former drug addict, now Christian. She had gone to a Christian rehabilitation program and, according to her, they “healed not only my body but also my soul”. Here is great hope for a dark world. Here is hope that frees people from addictions, grants liberation to those consumed in homosexuality and other sexual perversions and that is “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10).
My last point here, and a fitting one to finish on, is that this world is dark, and much darker than we may be able to see. The Apostle Paul states that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Paul also speaks of how we are to resist this darkness: “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Ephesians 6:10). As Martin Luther stated in his grand hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”: “Did we in our own strength confide/our striving would be losing/were not the right Man on our side /the Man of God’s own choosing.”
We cannot repel the darkness in our own strength. We will be fighting the devil on his own terms if we vindictively oppose liberalism, hate our enemies and anything else along those lines. Satan is equally content if the malevolent liberalism rampant in our institutions is replaced by an equally malicious conservatism. He does not care how human souls are destroyed, but only that they are. Let us be on the side of the right man, Jesus Christ, the Lord of hosts, who, in Luther's words, “must win the battle”.
