Good News for the Moralists
Here’s some good news for those who prefer to combat cultural evil through the edification and cultivation of moral sensibilities: In “Repugnance as a Constraint on Markets,” Alvin E. Roth finds that “distaste for certain kinds of transactions is a real constraint, every bit as real as the constraints imposed by technology or by the requirements of incentives and efficiency.”
He also finds that “while repugnance can change over time, change can be quite slow.” This presumably applies to the decrease of a sense of repugnance over a currently outlawed activity, as well as the increase in repugnance to a currently practiced pursuit.
This means, though, that not only is patience required, but also that church leaders need to get their positions right before they have a chance of influencing culture for the better. This also means, in part, not calling evil good and good evil as false prophets do.
John Piper’s words from his foreword to John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptation would seem to apply here:
He also finds that “while repugnance can change over time, change can be quite slow.” This presumably applies to the decrease of a sense of repugnance over a currently outlawed activity, as well as the increase in repugnance to a currently practiced pursuit.
This means, though, that not only is patience required, but also that church leaders need to get their positions right before they have a chance of influencing culture for the better. This also means, in part, not calling evil good and good evil as false prophets do.
John Piper’s words from his foreword to John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptation would seem to apply here:
As I look across the Christian landscape, I think it is fair to say con귎rning sin, ‘They have healed the wound of my people lightly’ (Jer. 6:14; 8:11, ESV). I take this to refer to leaders who should be helping the church know and feel the seriousness of indwelling sin (Rom. 7:20), and how to fight it and kill it (Rom. 8:13). Instead the depth and complexity and ugliness and danger of sin in professing Christians is either minimized—since we are already justified—or psychologized as a symptom of woundedness rather than corruption. This is a tragically light healing. I call it a tragedy because by making life easier for ourselves in minimizing the nature and seriousness of our sin, we become greater victims of it.
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