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19 November 2017

Roy Moore and Old Testament Law

In a previous post I expressed some scepticism and ambivalence with regard to the recent spate of harassment claims. The men are indeed bestial and ungodly in their behaviour and yet many of these women, especially in the arts or corporate settings are not wholly innocent.
In other cases the behaviour can only be described as predatory. While an aspiring entertainer or businesswoman can always walk away and maintain virtue (even at great cost) there are those in other situations that are under real authority in the form of the state and thus under actual threat. These situations are often different in their nature and the women subjected to abuse are truly victims. I'm speaking of officials who hold badges and offices, who wear uniforms and carry guns. These men who use their authority to abuse the weak are of a different and very pernicious stripe.


The jury is still out on Roy Moore though there's a lot of smoke suggesting a fire. And what a fire if it's all true. If even half the stories are verified then he's something of wretch if not an out-and-out monster. He's accused of abusing his state authority and preying on the weak. And in another vein he's accused of behaviour such as cruising shopping malls for the purpose of soliciting teenage girls.
I've always believed him a fraud even before I knew anything about this. I've never liked Roy Moore and have always relegated him to the category of swindler... something of a used-car salesman.
It would seem that my assessment may be proven too generous.
It would be bad enough if Moore was this type of person but sitting home and minding his own business. But instead he's a self-righteous swaggering megalomaniac, a sociopathic blowhard that wants, even lusts after legislative power.
He thinks godliness is gain. Money and power are what Jesus came to die for in the Christianity of Roy Moore. And apparently he thinks the rules don't apply to him. Is he a victim of the cheap grace gospel of the Billys? I'm referring to both Sunday and Graham.
Or is he just a wretched hypocrite that's been playacting all along? It's always been quite clear that Moore knows next to nothing about Biblical Christianity let alone Western history and the hosts of ideas it has spawned. He could almost be a poster-child for the case against democratically elected judges.
Here's the great irony and I'm sure many have already picked up on it. I don't know if Moore is a Theonomist but he certainly walks some of the same roads and rubs shoulders with some of the same people. Another fraud and heretic, the late D James Kennedy apparently held him in high regard.
Regardless of his exact doctrinal position, which I gather is somewhat vague, he wishes to utilise Old Testament law and the example of the Israelite Theocracy as some sort of model or inspiration for his understanding of the United States.
He wants to live under the Law of Moses as he makes clear in his constant and erroneous reiteration of the Decalogue. I will grant he probably hasn't thought this through very well. Most Evangelicals haven't. But, for all his promulgating of the Law given at Sinai is he unfamiliar with the commands and sanctions that go with it? Has he read Leviticus and Deuteronomy?
Does he not know that fornication requires compensatory payment and marriage? Does he not know that adultery demands the death penalty?
He could also be accused of being a thief but given everything else, that's almost a lesser concern.
In terms of US law, which he himself swore to uphold, he was right to be put out of office and under sanction. If he couldn't follow US law, then he shouldn't have sworn to do so. Rather than focusing on the Ten Commandments he might have done better to read the Sermon on the Mount. That might have given him a better grasp of ethics for the New Testament era. It might have laid the groundwork for Apostolic authority. The epistles then would have taught him about how to read the Old Testament, the place of the law, the example and definition of Israel as well as personal and social ethics.
Moore did not do this. In terms of Christianity he himself is something of a victim. Fed a false gospel with visions of a false kingdom, he was caught up in the madness of American Evangelical Right-wing politics and the desire to reconstitute Christendom in a modern setting synthesized with Enlightenment categories.  This is what the American Christian Right is. It's schizophrenic and if Moore, who seems unrepentant and therefore must be reckoned as lost, got caught up in it all... what can we expect?
A lost person is going to respond like a lost person. Dogs eat vomit and offal, and lost people twist truth and turn good into evil. That's what they do.
Do I know the state of Moore's soul? Of course not, but there's obviously something very amiss with this man. He's unrepentant and defiant and clearly he has misunderstood the basic messages of Scripture. He's an idolater and has syncretised his truncated form of Christianity with a rival philosophy and its idols.
I have no reason to believe he's a Christian and were he to show up on Sunday seeking communion... if I were administering it, I would certainly turn him away.
He has brought great shame on the Church and the name of Christ and the fact that Evangelicals are equally defiant and stand with him just as a year ago they stood by Trump... tells us a great deal about the state of things.
Under US law Moore is innocent until proven guilty. All well and good. US jurisprudence and procedure doesn't define the Church.
I want to know what is his church doing? How are the elders dealing with this? He has been accused by a lot of people and there's a sordid history that seems to be emerging. Even David repented and came clean when accused. God is merciful and eager to forgive but He does not forgive those with hardened hearts and stiff necks. He does not forgive those who wipe their mouths and say they've done nothing wrong.
At this point in time even if 98% of the accusations were false and exaggerated it would seem Moore would still owe explanations and would at the very least need to make some confessions, apologies and demonstrate some reflection and repentance.
Would this ruin his political aspirations? Maybe. Probably. But who cares? Does it have to be done in view of the general public? Well, Moore is the one who put himself forward as a righteous leader. If you want to be a public figure and to possess authority then you must expect to be scrutinised. The bar is higher. Even lost people know this.
Moore of course shouldn't be involved in any of this. No Christian should. I would love to see him repent, step aside, leave politics and then spend what's left of his life exposing the corruption in the system, in both parties, in the Christian Right.... a corruption he knows intimately. He could turn this episode into a blessing and spend his remaining years as an almost-prophet exposing the great evils and demonstrating his sincerity with his repentance and rejection of power.
But that's probably not how his story is going to end.
All I can say is that he had better be glad that he lives in a Liberal society and not under the Israelite Theocracy.
Otherwise his career would end another way. He would end up a bloody pulp surrounded by stones cast in judgment. Or more righteously and poetically he would be crushed, executed by the two-and-a-half ton monument to Old Testament law that he used to hypocritically proclaim his righteousness and intimidate others.
Yes, he had better be mighty thankful that the Founders based the law of the land on Enlightenment principles and not Old Testament Law or even Throne and Altar Christendom.  
Moore is a fool. I mean that in the moral sense. I hope he repents.

I will not be sorry to see Roy Moore fall by the wayside but the Church will be left dealing with the carnage he leaves behind.