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Religious Humanism & Situation Ethics Introduction: In earlier lessons we defined humanism, the faces of unbelief, and looked at situation ethics. Religious humanist is a term used to describe those that want to take some of the ideas of humanism and incorporate them in to their belief of God. Situation ethics as discussed in an earlier lesson takes the idea that morality is always changing depending on the person and the situation. This would seem to contradict the Bible where God's law plainly states that there are things we must and must not do. See ; 1 Corinthians 6.9; Hebrews 5.9 I) The Situation Ethics of Believers in God A) A new morality -- not rigid like the Bible but one focused on man and his needs 1. Joseph Fletcher wrote "Situation Ethics: The New Morality" absolutes such as "never" or "always" or "no" and "only" are to be avoided at all cost. 2. The only absolute is love. Each situation must be evaluated on the basis of love. a. only one 'thing' is intrinsically good; namely, love: nothing else at all b. the ruling norm of Christian decisions is love: nothing else c. love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed, nothing else d. love wills the neighbor's good whether we like him or not e. only the end justifies the means, nothing else f. love's decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively 3. The 10 Commandments could be broken if love deemed it necessary. a. If love is best served then lying, stealing, murder, etc. then laws prohibiting those things must be set aside. b. Paul asked, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?"Romans 6.1. Joseph Fletcher would say yes. c. The ends, love, justifies the means, disobedience to God's law. B) Example of situation ethics 1. In World War 2, a German soldier was captured at the Battle of the Bulge. He was sent to a prison camp. A little later his wife while foraging for food was picked up by a Russian patrol and sent to a Russian prison camp. A few months later the man was released and sent home. His wife remained in the Russian camp. He found his three young children and found out his wife was in a prison camp. They got word to her and their need for her to be with them. The Russians would release a woman from a prison camp if she was a) mentally ill, or b) pregnant. She committed adultery with a guard, got pregnant and was sent home. The family accepted her back home and the new baby. 2. What if the woman on the way home needed food. Could she use her body to get food? What if she needed clothes, or transportation, could she do the same? 3. Could she sell her body once at home in order to provide for her family? 4. The re-writing of the10 Commandments i) Thou shall have no other gods before me unless the situation demands occasional idolatry ii) Thou shall not make graven images ordinarily but time and place may well demand deviation from this law iii) thou shall not take God's name in vain unless the situation seemingly demands profanity iv) Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy unless certain unforeseen situations occasionally demands a temporary deviation of this holy practice v) Honor your parents ordinarily but situations may call for occasional rebellion as generation gaps widen vi) Thou shall not kill unless the situation calls for murder vii) Thou shall not commit adultery usually but certain situations may make premarital and extramarital affairs quite beautiful and desirable viii) Thou shall not steal usually but no hard and fast rules demanding total and continuous honesty will work all the time ix) Thou shall not bear false witness unless a lie will better serve the situation than will the truth x) Thou shall not covet unless the object is so beautiful to behold and desirable to have that further resistance toward this prohibition of the mind is both foolish and futile II) Problems With Religious Situational Ethics A) Misunderstanding of who we are to love and how we are to love 1. We are here to first love God, Matthew 22.37 a. Thus we are to obey His word, 1 Corinthians 6.20 b. What about our love for God? How can we claim to love God while disobeying Him? 1 John 5.3. 2 ) Misunderstanding of love, Matthew 22.39 a. Love is to seek the best for the other person, whereas Joseph Fletcher's love is self serving. b. What about the soldier that fathered the child? What about the child itself? c. What about the soldiers wife and his family? e. Love must be defined according to God's standard and not our own. B) Love is not contrary or in conflict with the Law of God (Love is good; the law is bad) 1. The Law of God tells us how to love our fellowman, Romans 13.10 a. By not stealing, by not lying to, by not killing, etc. b. By thinking of others first 2. Situation ethics says to judge for yourselves when you should cast aside God's word, Jeremiah 10.23 C) Misapplying certain passages 1. John 8.1-11 the woman caught in adultery, Jesus simply discounted her sin under those circumstances a. They failed to realize that Jesus applied the law of Moses, Deut. 19.15 where there were to be two or three witnesses b. Jesus told the woman to go and sin no more which meant He realized she had sinned. 2. 2 Corinthians 3.4-ff "for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" a. They said it is sometimes ok to violate the letter of the law as long as we are keeping the spirit of the law. b. Jesus says to worship in spirit and truth -- don't worry about instrumental music, sprinkling for baptism, leavened bread and fruit of the vine, etc. c. The passage is making a contrast between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant
d. One can keep the letter of the law and violate the spirit of the law. Scribes and Pharisees, Matthew 23.23 e. One cannot keep the spirit of the law and violate the very law itself. i. One cannot keep the spirit of love and at the same time violate the principle of loving God for loving God is keeping His commandments, John 14.15 ii. One cannot love God and not love his fellowman, 1 John 4.20-21. iii. Therefore to rob my fellowman is unloving to God and fellowman. Genesis 39.9 IV) Application To Us A) God centered teaching vs. man centered teaching 1. Our relationship with God comes before our relationship with our fellowman. 2. There is a difference in teaching the Bible to stress God and teaching it to stress other things. B) Teaching the Bible vs. other things 1. Noah and the flood in Genesis 6. a. Salvation comes from God, His grace, Genesis 6.8 b. We must do what God commands, obedience, Genesis 6.22 c. Faith demands we do what God says, faith and works, Hebrews 11.7 d. Punishment of God on those that do evil, Genesis 6.5-7 e. What do humanist want us to teach? How we should take care of our animals, the eco-system in which we live. 2. Jesus feeding the 5,000 in John 6.1-14 a. Showing the deity of Jesus and His compassion for the people. b. Not about sharing with others. (Story of two brothers wanting waffles. Mother says, Jesus would let the other brother have the waffle. One brother says, OK, I will let you be Jesus. They missed the point.) 3. Why should we not steal, lie, worship idols, etc, because God said not to, 1 Corinthians 6.9 4. We are to worship in spirit and truth (John 4.24), confess Jesus, repent of our sins, be baptized for the remission of sins, remember the Lord's death each Sunday, etc. Why? Because God said so. a. Not because we like it or it makes us feel better. b. Because God says so and after I do what God says I should feel better but my feelings are not the primary reason. 5. Humanist says we can keep certain religious traditions because they happen to agree with those traditions, not because God says so. How the humanist looks at religion: a. God is dead (does not exist) b. But the masses of the people are not ready to give up on religion c. So, let them have their religion, but take God out of the picture d. Turn all emphasis to life on this earth, because that is all there is (A Generation That Knows Not God, page 21) Conclusion: Religious humanism just like secular humanism ignores the principle of absolute truth. To them it is all relative.
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