The Left Can No Longer Govern Itself

The last couple of weeks have been very revealing, not just about our political landscape, but our nation’s moral landscape as well. I have a personal belief that has been reinforced by recent events: The political Left has so disconnected itself from objective ethical standards that it lacks the ability to self-govern. The Right, however, still maintains its ability to appeal to moral goods to reflect on its own movement.

This week in Virginia, Democrats elected as Attorney General a man who openly fantasized about murdering the children of his opponent in front of their parents’ eyes. And you thought these kinds of threats died with the ancient Babylonians. In the same state they elected a woman who could not look her black, female, conservative opponent in the eye during a debate. In addition, the people of our nation’s “greatest city” elected a man who openly espouses Marxist and discriminatory policies, promising to take from one group of citizens and give it freely to others. That same candidate has cozied up to parts of the electorate that many would classify as pro-jihadist.

Madness Across the Spectrum

But the moral confusion has not just been on the Left. The looming, but shadowy, Alt-Right also had its moment in the spotlight. When a pro-Nazi, pro-Stalin, open antisemite was platformed on one of the largest presumably right-of-center podcasts (Tucker Carlson’s), lines were suddenly drawn. How many Conservatives were for Nick Fuentes’ brand of hate? How many were unable to draw clear lines in the sand? How many stood up against that kind of rhetoric? It sent the social media feeds of the Right into an uproar.

It should not surprise us that evil lurks in every political party’s house. After all, as one prophet put it, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) But what has struck me as significant watching these events unfold is who is and is not upset about them.

It is the job of Christians and rational citizens to recognize evil ideologies and call them out. Our commitment to free speech means we allow people to say whatever they believe, but it does not compel us to agree with them or let them go unchallenged in the public square.

Wise and mature people should thrust their heads above the rampart and call out bad ideas when they see them. Bad ideas, after all, do not stay as just ideas. The more they are accepted and normalized, the more likely they are to become bad policies with terrible consequences. When that happens, people suffer. The act of opposing bad ideas is, in fact, an act of neighbor love.

What Are We to Do?

After Tucker Carlson platformed Nick Fuentes, there were individuals and organizations who did not know exactly what to do with that, and then there were some who simply revealed their support for Fuentes. That reaction, however, did not go unchallenged. As the days passed, more and more conservatives expressed their disgust at Fuentes’s ideas and his seeming normalization by Carlson.

Most prominently, Ben Shapiro spent over 40 minutes detailing the worst of his ideas and raking Carlson over the coals. It was a clear, can we say, prophetic call back to moral sanity. Those evil ideas needed to be called out and expunged from the Conservative movement, and we needed to maintain our moral clarity.

No such thing has happened on the Left. The moral and political insanity of the Left continues to act like a mudslide with no bottom in sight. I have yet to find a Progressive thought leader or pastor who has decried the desire to kill children or coddle Islam.

We Still Have a Standard: The Cross

This has become one of the clarifying differences between the Left and the Right: The Right still has a moral standard by which to judge evil, and the Left does not. As our political landscape stands now, there seems to be no bad idea the Left will not embrace or ignore in order to gain political advantage.

As such, this is evidence of an ideology that I cannot have anything to do with. The Word of God is the revealed standard of God’s character and will, and it does not change. There is no unrighteousness in God’s character, so his people cannot turn a blind eye to evil. 2 Chronicles 19:7 simply states, “Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the Lord our God.” If I am to be faithful to a passage of Scripture like this, I need to be part of a political system that will, at least to some significant degree, submit itself to ethical scrutiny.

Phil Steiger is a husband and the Senior Pastor at Living Hope Church. He has pastored for over 30 years, has degrees in economics and philosophy, and is passionate about the Church spreading the truth and good news about Christ.