It’s the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, Stupid

from Patrick Morley

Volume 317
March 30, 2009

In 1992, Bill Clinton defeated George Bush, by campaigning on political consultant Jim Carville’s theme: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Here we are again—up to our necks in economic quicksand. As Yogi Berra said, “This is like déjà vu all over again.” Again, politicians, pollsters and pundits think we have a problem with the “economy.” And, of course, we do, and we need to work on it. But are we only treating the symptoms? Are we trying to stitch up the patient without removing the tumors?

The economy is the symptom, not the disease. Unless we remove the moral and spiritual “tumors” that sent us to the Emergency Room in the first place, we can expect neither a quick nor a lasting recovery.

If the economy is the symptom, what is the disease? In January of 1984, President Reagan spoke to the National Religious Broadcasters Association in Washington, D.C. Here’s a portion of his speech:

Government bureaucracies spend billions for problems related to drugs alcohol and disease. How much of that money could we save, how much better off might American’s be if all of us tried a little harder to live by the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule? I have been told that since the beginning of civilization, millions and millions of laws have been written. I have even heard someone suggest, it was well over several billion laws. And yet, taken all together, all those millions and millions of laws have not improved on the Ten Commandments one bit.”

In a lot of ways, Ronald Reagan was right. By getting away from the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule we, as a nation, have become an angry, accusative, peevish people. We grumble too much. Maybe it’s time to suck it up and “be a man” about it. Let’s accept responsibility for our plight and repent.

I would like to hear more preaching on 2 Chronicles 7:14. I would like to hear more spiritual leaders speaking out against the underlying disease. I would like to see more Christians in the marketplace and the public square “out themselves” as believers and make a stand—even if it turns out to be a last stand. And I would like to see us get back to the moral and spiritual underpinnings that makes this country so great.

God needs to be getting more glory. How? It’s the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, stupid.

Yours for changed lives,

Patrick Morley, Ph.D.