The Lie of Christian Values—And the Deeper Truth That Sets Us Free

Exploring the Myth of “Biblical Values” and the Deeper Truth about How Christians Shape their Moral Vision.

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Back in the ’90s, the big conservative catchphrase was “family values”. These values stood in opposition to granting LGB rights (yeah, it was just “LGB” back then), such as marriage. But, for the most part, I think we could safely say that these family values really meant “Christian values”, you know the values that considered gay sex to be a sin.

Meanwhile, the typical leftist comeback was, “You can’t legislate morality.”

So, yeah, take that, Republicans.

Then, one day, I said that to one of my professors. That’s when he pointed out the obvious that I clearly had missed. He said, “all legislation is legislating morality.”

Wow! I didn’t expect that truth bomb.

Instantly, I got it. Why do we have speed limits? You can drive 70 mph on the interstate but only 35 mph through a residential neighborhood. Why? Because kids live there. Families walk dogs. You don’t want to mow anyone down. That’s not just a traffic rule. It says that endangering others is bad, and you need to rein in dangerous behavior. Legislated morality.

That’s definitely a lesson I learned in college that I’ve never forgotten, and it changed the way I viewed politics forever.

A Christian nation?

Given that all legislation is legislating morality, should we be surprised when a religious group wants to officially legislate their morality? Well, that’s what Christian Nationalists are all about.

You see, they push the idea that America would be better off as an official Christian nation. So, they strive to acquire the political power needed to enshrine their brand of morality. Then, the government becomes their enforcer.

So here’s the question for you…

Would America actually be better off if our culture reflected Christian values?

I actually think so. And that’s where (ironically) I find myself in rare agreement with Christian Nationalists.

But here’s the catch (and I’m guessing you’ve already figured this out)…

My understanding of “Christian values” looks nothing like theirs.

The problem with “Christian values”

Let’s take a moment and look at those “Christian values”

Where do they come from? Well, presumably the Bible. In fact, I suspect most people assume that “Christian values” and “biblical values” are the same thing.

Which brings us to a related question: Do “biblical values” actually exist?

Is it possible to open the Bible and pull out a neat, coherent set of values that hold steady across all the texts?

The obvious answer is “no”.

The Bible is technically not “a book”. It’s more like a library. It contains several books written by different authors, in different times, in different contexts, addressing different issues, and operating out of different theologies.

That’s why, very simply, there is no single understanding of God in the Bible. No single definition of right and wrong. There’s not even a consistent list of what counts as sin.

In other words, the Bible is not univocal. It speaks with a plurality of voices.

That means it’s impossible to compile a master list of “biblical values” that all its authors would sign off on. And even when two writers could agreeed on a particular value, they could easilly have understood or applied it in radically different ways. After all, they were human.

Here’s a quick video by biblical scholar Dan McClellan talking about how the Bible is not univocal.

The Bible as the measure for Christian values

To say it’s all a matter of interpretation doesn’t mean you can just pull something out of thin air and call it a Christian value. Quite the opposite. It gives us a touchstone for accountability.

If you’re going to claim something is a Christian value, you need to make a case for it. That means appealing to the Bible. You have to show that the value isn’t just lurking in a single verse, but that it emerges as a dominant theme strong enough to outweigh competing interpretations. In other words, the Bible remains the measuring stick for the authenticity of any proposed Christian value.

And this is why Christians are always arguing about the Bible. Every debate, in one way or another, comes down to who has the most authoritative interpretation of the texts.

Take the slavery debate in 19th-century America as an example. Back in seminary, my Presbyterian history professor had us read primary source documents from the era. Pro-slavery Christians insisted the Bible clearly sanctioned the institution. Anti-slavery Christians countered that Jesus called us to love our neighbors and slavery was the antithesis of a loving relationship.

Behold, dueling biblical interpretations!

(Side note: have you ever noticed this pattern is in almost every church controversy? Conservatives declare, “The Bible says…” Liberals respond, “Yes, but that’s not loving.”)

This all means any supposed Christian value is open to critique. And after critique, it may be affirmed as authentically Christian or rejected as falling short of the Spirit of Christ.

Principles and values

Before we keep talking about values, we need to pause and talk about something related: principles.

I see principles and values as two different things. Principles are general truths that point us in the right direction, like a compass showing us our true north.

Values, on the other hand, are the things we actually stand for, the commitments we treat as important. If principles are the compass, values are the path we choose to walk under its direction.

The two feed into each other. Principles are our conscious articulations of guiding truth, while values often run more unconsciously until we bring them to the surface. Sometimes we articulate principles to give coherence to our values; other times we name our values to bring them in line with our principles.

To see how these function together, I want to look at conservative principles and values and compare them to my principles and values. I think when we look at the two and compare we discover there is something going on behind the scenes that makes it extremely difficult for conservatives and progressives to have a meaningful conversation about Christian values.

Struggling to Make Sense of It All?

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