This week in the college class I teach, Ethics, we entered into the discussion on abortion. In 1800 there were no laws for abortion in the U.S.. In 1900 all 45 states had laws banning abortion. In 1973 abortion became legal for first trimester only. In 1989 abortion became legal in all trimesters.
I came upon a website that I quoted in class and now share with you from Gregory Koukl, called Stand to Reason: Morally Velocitized. “Two years ago I wrote that our culture was becoming morally “velocitized.” The term describes something I learned in driver’s training in high school. Once a driver accelerates from, say, 30 to 60 miles per hour and settles in, he gets acclimated to his new speed and loses his true sense of velocity. It doesn’t feel as if he’s moving any faster than he was at first.
This is dangerous on the highway, but it’s deadly when it happens to the moral consciousness of a society. Years ago, Dr. Francis Schaeffer noted that what was unthinkable yesterday is thinkable today, and ordinary and commonplace tomorrow. We saw it happen once in this century. We’re seeing it happen again.”
I, Mark Tuttle, share this quote not just about abortion, but about the moral velocity of all ethical and moral situations. I read in the Des Moines Register [October 22, 2008] yesterday how they want to decriminalize prostitution in San Francisco, California. It is up for vote next month in an issue called Proposition K. In the article, it states that at this point it does not make prostitution legal, but would forbid authorities to investigate, arrest or prosecute anyone selling sex. The article also confirmed the legality of prostitution in two states, Nevada and Rhode Island in certain locations.
So the question I pose is ‘what’s next’? Will we get comfortable about prostitution and eventually make it legal in all 50 states? We are becoming more velocitized in the concept of marriage that we will eventually make homosexual unions legal in all 50 states? I pose another concept, if we keep the velocity going, will we legalize the union in marriage of three people? What’s to stop us? Often in debate, I have used as an analogy the rubber band. It will stretch and stretch and stretch, but even the rubber band has it’s limit and will eventually break. What is societies breaking point in abortion and prostitution and homosexual unions, just to name three? Was the great flood in the time of Noah the breaking point of the velocity of immorality? Was Sodom and Gomorrah the breaking point in the time of Abraham and Lot again for the velocity of immorality?
Having just seen the $700 billion bailout, what about corporate greed and lies to cover up such glaring financial ruin. Are we allowing moral velocity in the work place? Does this trickle down to the household and allowing our children to run loosely over moral issues? Where do we draw the line?
Maybe it’s time we check our speedometers and hold to the speed limit signs. Are they not put there for a purpose? Maybe it’s time we get back to the basics of God’s laws and hold firm to the Truth that is spoken in the Bible. I recall that there is penalty for trying to change what is written in God’s Word. I think we may want to hold true to God’s Word or we might end up with another kind of flood or hail fire and brimstone.
