Values-Neutrality and Expectations of Government

In the tiny book of 3rd John, we read these expressions from the disciple of Jesus:
2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.
3 It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth.
4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Our soul is "getting along well" as we grow in our walk with Christ.  Our Christian life is centered on the truths that we find in the Bible.  The Bible becomes the basis for our beliefs, and forms the core of our deeply held values.  I would contend there is no such thing as "values-neutrality" - we can make sure that our lives are lining up with the principles of Scripture and to avoid being in a position of walking in a manner contrary to His teachings.  God's Word provides us with the direction we need and can release His power to comply.

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As believers, we recognize that God's Word should form the basis for the decisions that we make.
Colossians 2 says:
6 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

The concept of governmental officials being "values-neutral" was the subject of a recent Gallup poll, and the results might not be so heartening for people of faith who desire for the values of our leaders to line up with those that are based in the Scriptures.

According to the summary of the latest survey, 51% of Americans say the government should not promote any set of values and 43% say it should promote traditional values.  The summary says:

This is the second time in the past four years Americans have tilted toward saying the government should be neutral on values. For most of the past decade, the public has been divided on what the government's role in this area should be. But even this was a shift from pre-2005, when Americans consistently favored the government's promoting traditional values.

Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say the government should not promote any set of values, with a 62 to 39 percent margin. In fact, Gallup points out that Democrats have consistently been more likely to hold this view over time. But one reason Americans as a whole are more likely now than in the past to say government should not promote any set of values is that an increasing number of Republicans hold this view. From 2001 to 2004, an average of 22% of Republicans thought government should be values-neutral, but since 2011, that number has increased to 34%.

Also, currently, 55% say the government "is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses," while 40% believe the "government should do more to solve our country's problems." Those percentages are similar to the averages of 53% and 39%, respectively, since 1993.  The summary says that, "Although rank-and-file Democrats are more likely to favor government activity to solve the nation's problems than they were in the past, a solid majority of independents and the vast majority of Republicans do not."

One of the overall implications is that "Americans' growing belief that the government should not favor any set of values represents a shift from the past, and is further evidence of a leftward tilt on matters of morality."

So, what can we conclude from this polling data?

I would contend there's no such thing as values-neutrality.   We each have a particular set of values, deeply held core beliefs to which we adhere.  So, if we reject traditional values based in the Scriptures, then we have embraced a worldview that is contrary to a Biblical perspective.   I believe there are certain moral absolutes that are consistent with Biblical truth - if we drift off into relativism, our belief system, our "values" have aligned with another authority.

I think that a quote from John Adams (from the Patriot Quotes Facebook page) can enlighten us of the dangers of values-neutrality regarding our government:

While our country remains untainted with the principles and manners which are now producing desolation in so many parts of the world; while she continues sincere, and incapable of insidious and impious policy, we shall have the strongest reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned us by Providence. But should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation, while it is practising [sic] iniquity and extravagance, and...rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the world. Because we have no government armed with power, capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Adams warned against so-called "values neutrality," and we have to guard against it in our own individual lives.   We must make sure that our decisions are grounded in Biblical truth and that what we do lines up with how the Bible directs us and who we are in Christ.  If we walk in neutrality toward principles of God's Word, then we set ourselves against His teaching, and that is a dangerous position.

And, it's a dangerous position for our country and its leaders.   An Emory University website quotes Rev. Matthew Simpson at Abraham Lincoln's funeral:

To a minister who said he hoped the Lord was on our side, he replied that it gave him no concern whether the Lord was on our side or not "For," he added, "I know the Lord is always on the side of right;" and with deep feeling added, "But God is my witness that it is my constant anxiety and prayer that both myself and this nation should be on the Lord's side."

So, we guard against values-neutrality and we look to select leaders who line up best with our values, rooted in the Scriptures.   Our vote is an act of worship before God, I believe, and we are to cherish it and to make a prayerful and informed choice when we fill out our ballots.