Today I want to expand
today’s topic on the importance (or relative non-importance) of motives out of
the realm of economics and into the wider political realm.
A lot of what I’m
about to say is stuff I’ve said before. For the most part, I try to give people
the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their politics. Unlike many on the
Left, I tend to say that those who disagree with me do so because they’re
misguided and possibly ill-informed, not due to a defect in their character. I
don’t accuse them of hating the poor or minorities. I think that the vast
majority of them truly want to benefit the lives of those in need and who are part
of traditionally oppressed minorities. I wish they’d extend the same courtesy
to me, but oh well. . .
But if you’ve been
paying attention at all to these postings and the general discussions on this
blog, you can probably guess where I’m going with this: When it comes to macro-political
and economic issues, one’s motivations are not nearly as important as results.
People think they’re helping the poor by handing them money and food, not
questioning for a moment if it helps more than it harms the intended beneficiaries.
People think they’re working for “peace” by disarming good nations and not standing
up to the bad ones. People think that a social worker—who has all the best
intentions in the world—does far more good than a greedy business owner, even
though the latter provides jobs, pays the taxes, and works to improve the lives
and raise the standard of living for all of us. Because the business owner only
cares about making money, therefore he can’t be doing good in the world. I’d like
to think I’ve refuted that way of thinking in the last couple of posts on this topic.
The great thing about the Free Market System (the FMS) is that it takes into
account the fact that we’re not angels, and it channels less-than-pure motives
into productive improvements in our society.
But this really needs
to be expanded into all the areas of our horizontal relationships. God knows my
heart inside-out and that’s ultimately what he cares about in my relationship
with him. If I truly desire to love him and serve him, then he can take my
worst screw-ups and turn them into something beautiful. But in my relationships
with people, it’s different. I can’t see your heart and you can’t see mine. You
might have the best of motivations towards me, or maybe you’re just faking it.
I don’t know. That’s between you and the Lord. But what I care most about in my
relationship with you is how you actually treat me.
I’ll go even further with
this. Let’s take my relationship with my spouse. I certainly don’t want her to outright
lie to me when she says she loves me and is committed to me. I don’t want her
saying “I love you, Keith, and I’m here until the grave separates us,” all the
while thinking “Yeah, buddy, you’re an idiot. The minute I get what I want out
of this, I’m outta here!” Obviously I don’t want that. But what if she doesn’t at that moment harbor the warmest of
feelings towards me? Do I still want her to be sweet and kind and considerate
in her behavior towards me, even if she doesn’t feel like doing so at that
particular moment? Of course. No matter how I feel towards someone at any
particular moment, I need to treat
them like Christ treats me, with love, patience, kindness, etc.
Lots of times my wife
has had a really harsh emotional roller-coaster ride courtesy of her strong
hormones. She’ll say she feels alone, or that she feels like a failure, or that
she feels ugly. My response? “Baby, your feelings can lie to you. There may
come a day when I don’t feel like
being faithful to you, that having an affair would solve all my problems. What
do I need to do then? You know the answer: Tell my feelings where they can go.”
Does Scripture have
anything to say about this? Why, yes it does! Here’s 1
John 3:16-18:
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for
us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone
has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity
on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not
love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
Note that this passage
says nothing about Jesus feeling compassion—or
any other emotion--towards us. Yes,
he did feel love and compassion towards us. But this particular passage doesn’t
say anything about that. John—the so-called “Apostle of Love”—says that the
ultimate expression of love was Jesus Christ laying down his life for us. He
took action, which is recorded in the Gospels and explained in the Epistles.
And in following his
example, we need to do the same. Not feel a certain way towards others in need.
Not even speak a certain way towards them. We are not to “love with words or
speech but with actions and in truth.” That means treating people a certain
way.
It applies in the “macro”
level as well. Politicians and political leaders and pundits might have the
best of intentions regarding this country. They truly want to help those in
need. But often the policies they propose and support are incredibly destructive
towards those they want to help.
You see, motivations don’t
matter that much when it comes to questions about how to fight poverty, or how
to deal with crime, or how to deal with this or that rogue nation on the national
scene. If our goal is to actually improve
things in those areas, then we need to move past accusing those who disagree
with us of racism or blood lust or nationalistic jingoism or whatever. We have
to ask ourselves what works. The Bible actually has some things to say about
these and other topics, and that’s what this blog is all about: Making the case
that the politically Conservative viewpoint in general is more compatible with
the Scriptures than the than the Liberal/Progressive/Leftist counterpart. If
the conservative viewpoint really is
closer to the Scriptures, then to my mind it’s ipso facto better for society in
general all the way down to individual lives.
So speaking about
love, I have some of the tough variety to offer to my siblings in Christ on the
other side of the political spectrum. I’m not your Judge. Only One knows your
heart, and I’m not him. But does it matter to you whether or not what you’re
doing actually helps those you’re trying to help? Does it matter to you whether
your “peace” initiative actually prevents war or exacerbates it? Does it matter
to you whether your efforts to help the poor actually get them out of poverty in the long term? If so, if
results actually matter to you, then maybe you have some homework and some
thinking to do.
Do motives matter? In
our relationship with the Lord, absolutely. When it comes to our horizontal
relationships, not so much.
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