Moral Authority Part II

It would be nice if authority wasn’t needed. Children wouldn’t have to listen to parents; workers wouldn’t have to listen to employers; we wouldn’t have to obey laws; and we wouldn’t have to listen to God. Whether we like it or not, authority is part of God’s order; there is chaos without it. Furthermore, in all true authority there is an element of fear. We somewhat fear those who are over us because they have some sort of leverage over our lives, paychecks, liberty, or eternal life. In this case, fear modifies our behavior to be compatible with the authority figure. It would be wonderful to loftily say that there should be no fear in the world. But fear keeps children and adults from doing wrong against authority and fear keeps despots from doing wrong too. Without moral authority, there is no fear to keep them in line. As we said yesterday, call it deterrence if you like. Some say that it is not our place to be the moral authority to the world. Well, someone is going to be an authority over the world; it’s either going to be a moral authority or a tyrannical authority but there will be one or the other. We can’t be all things to all people but we can be something good to some people. Without our projection of moral authority, evil and chaos fills our voids in this world. In essence, we will either be a force for good or a provocation for evil. The same is true in regards to our domestic issues. Either good people will exert moral authority or our country will be left in the hands of those who are provoked at our weakness.