Name: https://www.youtube.com/embed/KFL6fBgtYv0?feature=oembed
Uploaded: 2012-09-20T00:00:00-04:00
Description: Christians face an uphill climb in convincing our neighbors that the common good requires laws that limit personal freedom.

Ask your neighbors, and whether they know it or not, they probably follow John Stuart Mill as a guiding moral authority. The 19th-century British philosopher taught, “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” This view has long since captured the popular Western imagination, shaping a whole range of moral debates, especially related to sexuality. Consider this typical argument for gay marriage offered by Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn:

To me, immoral conduct is that which harms others, period. To you or your religious tradition, it may encompass much more, and that’s fine. Advocates aren’t asking you or your officiants to bless gay marriage, celebrate it or even, in your heart, to like it. They’re asking you to recognize the line America tries to maintain between personal morality and the judgment of the law; between what’s your business and what’s none of your business.

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This view makes perfect sense if we regard society as a collection of atomized individuals with no higher authority than themselves. But no one actually lives this way, at least consistently. As moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt points out in his recent book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, “Some actions are wrong even though they don’t hurt anyone.” Just ask your veteran neighbor what he thinks about burning the American flag. Or ask your pet-loving neighbor, whose dog has been killed by a passing car, if you can eat the meat. Yes, the revulsion you feel suggests that morality encompasses more than harm.

Even so, Christians living in Western cultures face an uphill climb in convincing our neighbors that the common good requires laws that limit personal freedom, especially in the realm of sexuality. So how might we begin to make such a case? I asked Tim Keller and Albert Mohler, so check out this wide-ranging discussion about right and wrong, human flourishing, personal liberation, and the ties that bind our society together.

Collin Hansen serves as vice president for content and editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition, as well as executive director of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He hosts the Gospelbound podcast and has written and contributed to many books, most recently Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation and Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential. He has published with the New York Times and the Washington Post and offered commentary for CNN, Fox News, NPR, BBC, ABC News, and PBS NewsHour. He edited Our Secular Age: Ten Years of Reading and Applying Charles Taylor and The New City Catechism Devotional, among other books. He is an adjunct professor at Beeson Divinity School, where he also co-chairs the advisory board.

R. Albert Mohler Jr. (MDiv, PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and host of The Briefing and Thinking in Public. He is the author of several books, including The Apostles’ Creed. He and his wife, Mary, have two children.

Tim Keller (MDiv, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; DMin, Westminster Theological Seminary) was founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Manhattan, chairman of Redeemer City to City, and co-founder of The Gospel Coalition. He wrote numerous books, including The Reason for God. He and his wife, Kathy, had three children.