Herbert W. Schneider, who is no friend of Christianity, makes an interesting observation in his widely-used philosophy text, A History of American Philosophy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1946).
Schneider observes, “as the New
England church covenants gradually became secularized and were
increasingly indistinguishable from the town ordinances, the `standing
order’ (as the New England theocracy was called) was put on the
defensive and resisted the growth of both political and religious
individualism” (12).
Schneider's comment
raises the question of what actually happened in those specific cases
where Christians succeeded in governing themselves and others in the
civil kingdom by legislating particular laws of Moses, as in the
historical scenario Schneider describes above. Could it be that when
this happened another law raised its head--the law of unintended
consequences?
Fleshing out Schneider's
point a bit may help to illustrate the fact that legislating “biblical”
morality in the civil kingdom often serves to aid the process of
secularization--the very thing those seeking to implement biblical
legislation are trying to avoid. There are four things we ought to
consider in this regard. Continue at Kim Riddlebarger
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