Replacing Morality with Psychology

Christian morality has fallen on hard times these days. No one seems to believe in it, least of all Christians. Even the word “morality” is dropping out of our vocabulary—and I do mean the vocabulary of Christians. More importantly, the words the Bible uses to describe the moral life—obedience, virtue, good works, commandments, good and evil—are words you no longer hear very much when Christians talk about their lives. Instead you run into a different set of words and concepts, which sound more spiritual but are in reality more psychological, having the effect of getting us worried about what’s going on inside our hearts.

The problem is, healthy hearts are focused not on themselves but on what’s outside themselves, such as their neighbors and the people they love. Christian morality used to help us focus in that outward direction, but it’s being replaced by these new, more psychological concepts, which form the backbone of the new evangelical theology. Perhaps the most important replacement for Christian morality in today’s churches is the idea that you’re supposed to “give God control” of your life. An older way of saying pretty much the same thing was that you’re supposed to “yield your heart to God.” And then there’s the motto, “Let go and let God,” …

The crucial difference is in who’s doing the doing. Obedience means doing what God says. “Giving God control” means letting God do it, not us. That’s a fundamentally different notion from obedience, and it undermines the very idea of moral responsibility. You’re not morally responsible for what’s done if you’re not the one doing it. So to the extent that it’s God doing it, not you, you’re not a responsible moral agent.