"Christian Morality": an oxymoron?

There's always a surge in reference to "Christian morality" in Presidential election cycles. This year has been no exception. The heat is on due to the ever increasing assault on traditional values of marriage, life, Christmas, democratic capitalism, and God Himself. Churches, apologists, and lay theologians have come from everywhere to protect what I often hear called "Christian morality."




This phrase has generally bothered me. My personal spiritual growth involves an understanding what Jesus talks about when He says "The Kingdom of Heaven is like this ...." I've never heard Him follow this with - conform to a particular code of conduct.

In fact Jesus tended to have His harshest words for the Pharisees, the greatest moralists of His day. Paul goes to great length to emphasize that anything added to the resurrection misses the point of the Gospel of Grace, especially morality. So what is the genesis of the notion of "Christian morality"?

I don't know!!!

But I do believe the term is an oxymoron. That is, the two terms used together contradict themselves. For them not to, they must take on a different meaning than originally intended. While Jesus referred to the Kingdom, not to Christians, there was some early reference to disciples of Jesus as Christians, Throughout the past 2000 years, the term Christian has been contaminated to refer to people who have a particular cultural or political persuasion. CS Lewis says that the term Christian has been applied to people who act like disciples of Christ. John Wesley preached a sermon called "The Almost Christian" to describe those who had all the values and behavior of Christians, but did not have the faith.

Morality is a term that technically refers to the notion of the right and wrong code of conduct for a society. Morality differs from laws in that law establishes a formal punishment system for violation whereas morality ostracizes (questions the legitimacy) rather than penalizes offenders.

Often morality is confused with culture. Culture technically describes behavior that is normal or expected and aligns with society's values. Doing the wave at a football game is cultural, not moral. But it is easy to see how most people combine morality with cultural norms and compile a behavioral code of conduct that everyone in a society must conform to or be rejected by the society. So morality is really a social exchange established by a society where individuals trade their behavior for acceptance.

When I put codes of conduct next to what Jesus says about the Kingdom, I get contradiction. The Gospel of Grace is not a behavioral code of conduct. In fact Jesus often references the same behavior that is acted out from two different motives. He says charitable giving or prayer or fasting with an social exchange focus may gain approval of people (morality), but is not what it means to be a Kingdom dweller. Jesus says the work of God is to repent and believe (trust a completely different mindset), not adhere to codes of conduct.

I certainly have no issue with wanting everyone in society to adopt what we see as a code of conduct that produces the best society. But by pushing a "Christian morality," we testify to a dying world that being a disciple of Jesus is just a code of conduct that competes with other moralities. This is not light to a dark world, its just someone's preferred criteria for exchange. The end game of pushing a particular morality is making "sinners" feel judged and condemned. Not the point of the Cross.  

It may be the reason that the church has become irrelevant to the millennial and even more so to pre-millennial. I somehow believe that these rising generations would fall in love with Jesus, but its hard for them to date Him when their parent, "Christian morality," demands otherwise.