Words to Live By (DOC)

							                        Words to Live By
                        Deuteronomy 11:18-21; 26-28

      In the sports world, there are no equals when it comes to crime
and punishment. Most of us are familiar with the amateur and
professional athletes who, because of their star status, commit a
crime or an offense and are not held accountable in the way the
average person would be.
      Unfortunately, sports fans like me have just gotten used to it
and make little of it, particularly once the next season begins.
Nothing restores a reputation more than playing well for the home
team and bringing in tons of money for the owners, the league, or the
university—money and fame that would have bypassed them had the
punishment been made permanent. This is why grace abounds in
college and professional sports more than it does at a Southern
Baptist tent revival!
      So this past week I was taken back a bit by the surprising news
that Brandon Davies, a star forward for one of the top NCAA men’s
basketball teams, was thrown off the team, lost his scholarship, and
may face permanent suspension from the university for a morals
violation which, in this case, was having consensual sex with his
college girlfriend. It wasn’t as if they were caught in the act and lied
about it. Davies simply admitted last Monday that they had done it
once behind closed doors in the privacy of one of their dorm rooms.
      The problem was, Davies and his girlfriend admitted to
premarital sex as a part of the Brigham Young University
community—BYU, of course, being the standard bearer of the
Mormon Church. On most college campuses, premarital sex isn’t


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only common, for the most part it’s a “no never mind”—endorsed and
expected by the campus community, with the only official precaution
that it be consensual and safe sex. On 90% of college campuses,
you’re more likely to be socially scorned for being a virgin than for
being a fornicator!
      But for the BYU community, what Davies and his girlfriend did
was break their honor code, something all students, faculty, and staff
must abide by—an honor code that includes abstaining from alcohol,
tobacco, tea, coffee, and substance abuse, along with requiring
regular church attendance. Everyone signs a pledge to abide by these
standards with the proviso that failure to live up to them results in
dismissal from the university.
      BYU may only join Bob Jones University in South Carolina and
a handful of other colleges in America where students and staff are
held accountable to such old-fashioned moral standards—some so
extreme that they likely weren’t even a part of grandma’s household
rules. Though everyone around the country is ballyhooing about the
puritanical strictness of BYU’s rule enforcement, few are crying foul
on that campus, including Davies. He knew better and he chose to
break his commitment to his teammates and the rest of the
university. Though he regrets his actions, he admits his sins and
knows he should be punished for them.
      Now many of us are Baptists who grew up with blue laws and
taboos, but I bet our opinions would vary as to what BYU should or
should not have done in the case of Davies and his girlfriend. As I
said, premarital sex isn’t considered by most to be the moral crime it
was a generation or two ago. At the same time, though, we certainly


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can respect the fact that the university holds everyone accountable to
the same standards, regardless of their status or celebrity. At a cost of
perhaps millions of dollars to the university if the basketball program
loses its shot at the national championship (not to mention the
amount of public ridicule they have already faced), the school has
chosen principle over popularity, rules over reward, and consistency
over compassion. That might not be a standard on which you and I
would stake everything (we’re not eager to return to the days of witch
hunts and “scarlet letters”), but we have to respect the fact BYU has
an honor code that is taken seriously, even under the pressure of
changing cultural mores and public scorn.
      At the same time, we might also have to admit that there are far
fewer moral standards upon which we would evaluate the character of
our community, and the individuals within it. What I mean is, we
tend to let the laws of the land determine what’s right and wrong,
serving as the principles upon which we will base our moral standards
more than the religious tradition we associate with or even the
standards spelled out in the pages of the Bible. We do that honestly
and reasonably because we recognize culture changes and religious
traditions and biblical laws were written for another social and
cultural context—one that doesn’t necessarily mesh with what we’ve
learned in recent centuries through the biological and social sciences.
      Cultural progress has brought about a change in our moral
reasoning. We’ve adjusted our thinking because of the perspective we
gained through education and experience which, of course, influence
our opinions about certain behaviors and traditional taboos. We’ve
learned to take a page out of Scripture and read it against the


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backdrop of modern clinical understandings of human behavior,
which is quite different than our forebears, who received biblical
instruction as a set of divinely established norms, applied universally
and equally to all.
      But in the process we must ask ourselves, have we lost touch
with something important to our personal and collective welfare?
Have we lost a sense of individual moral discipline and common
decency?
      The passage in Deuteronomy raises this point for me. Arguably,
it is only a preface to what follows it in the text—a series of laws
(dietary, monetary, marriage, sexuality, etc.) book-ended with a
similar chapter near the end: obey the laws of God and you will be
blessed; abandon them at your peril as you shall be cursed. If you
read Deuteronomy in the King James’ English, all of it brings up
stereotypes of an old priggish schoolmarm scaring you into obedience
with a ruler ready to rap your knuckles. As a caricature, it’s hard not
to view Old Testament laws in this fashion.
      But if we get passed that and reflect a little bit more on this, we
might figure out what lies behind all the “thou shall’s” and “thou shall
nots,” which is a desire to preserve the integrity, character, and
welfare of the ancient Jewish community and nation—something not
that far a field from what many of us seek to do today to preserve a
sense of civility, mutual respect, and common decency in our own
community and nation. Though we would disagree with the
particulars when it comes to the moral standards and punishments
for law-breaking in ancient Judaism, we might not reject the




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underlying intent. We often think and say similar things to our
children and grandchildren as we offer our own words to live by.
      For example, kosher laws were not just religious taboos—set up
to determine who was a good Jew and who wasn’t. In fact, the
dietary laws were practical in determining what was safe to eat and
what was not. Blood was often a carrier of disease in slaughtered
animals, so prohibitions from tasting it were to keep people healthy,
even though religious codes made it about not consuming the life of
another living creature. That might have been the meaning
associated with it, but it wasn’t the purpose. In the same way, pork
and most wild game were forbidden, again not just because of some
moral taboo, but mainly because trichinosis was a health concern and
tribal safety was utmost. They may not have given it a name back
then, but they certainly knew the effects of the parasite.
      Similarly, all the sexual prohibitions were not to simply identify
who was holy and who wasn’t; instead, they were largely to preserve
the integrity of the community and to encourage the growth of
population through procreation. In a tribal world, that was essential
for survival. It had little to do with expressions of love and affection.
The bottom line was, every sexual activity that didn’t result in more
babies or that destroyed trust in relationships in households and
communities or that left women and children or other vulnerable
people subject to undo suffering were considered taboo. Even male
circumcision was primarily for hygiene and increasing fertility; it
wasn’t just some initiation rite to provide religious identity at
childbirth.




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      In other words, there was an underlying practical rationale for
the laws; they were not random moral edicts from on high that one
blindly obeyed without knowing why. Though it was cast in the
language of religious holiness and faithfulness to God, it was really
more about survival as a people. Thousands of years later, we’ve
adjusted our thinking for the most part because many of the biblical
taboos simply don’t apply to our circumstances and realities. But at
the time, to ancient minds, they were words to live by to advance
everyone’s best welfare.
      The offense we take, of course, isn’t limited to the laws; it’s also
toward the consequences of breaking those laws, such as horrific
punishments like public stoning. But again we have to recognize such
severity wasn’t to foster some Neanderthal barbarism, but rather to
heighten the importance of abiding by the law. They were capital
offenses because the laws were paramount for the integrity of the
community. Fear was struck into people’s hearts, since they wouldn’t
want to die or be publicly shamed or exiled for casually crossing the
line and harming someone else in the community. Frankly,
forgiveness and grace was often afforded in many cases, just not
advertised. Public stonings were not a common phenomenon.
      The problem was, the laws and their punishments were not
applied equally or fairly. Those who had connections often got away
with murder (e.g., King David), whereas those without influence often
paid dearly for their sins which, of course, was Jesus’ main complaint.
Jesus’ emphasis on divine forgiveness and grace wasn’t to suspend all
judgment and accountability; he proclaimed grace to those who
usually didn’t receive it from others.


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     All of this, of course, was to preserve the integrity of
relationships and the character and quality of community life.
Returning to our passage, that’s why everyone was to be held
accountable and to uphold the spirit and intent of the law, doing
everything they could to continually remind themselves of behaving
in ways that fostered better relationships and diminished the natural
selfishness of human beings. The prophets reminded them that God
was aware of all the ways people took advantage of each other and
was instrumental in seeking justice for the victims against the
perpetrators, and this was the reason to take them seriously day in
and day out, even in the privacy of one’s own thoughts.
     …[P]ut these words of mine in your heart and soul [into your spirit and
     inner most feelings], and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand [into
     the activities of your life], and fix them as an emblem on your forehead
     [into the thoughts of your mind]. Teach them to your children, talking
     about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie
     down and when you rise. Write them on the doorposts of your house and
     on your gates [not to make you appear religious and holy, but to remind
     you everyday when you left home to treat your neighbor well], so that your
     days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land…

Follow these commandments and you will be a strong,
compassionate, just and merciful people, spirited in the way that
builds community and a strong society, and avoids the pitfalls of
moral and social decline. Be faithful, not just to be in God’s favor—
not just to appear holy in comparison to others—but in order to do
well and be well together as a people. Obedience comes with a
blessing and failure comes with a curse. But the curse from God is
not the consequence of your sins; rather, the consequences
themselves are the curse of your sins! Learn from the wisdom of




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others, for the moral teachings we receive and pass on are the words
we are to live by.
      In effect, I think this is what BYU has done with Brandon
Davies. They’ve held him accountable to a standard that makes sense
in their community for the sake of preserving it’s moral character and
trust. We might not agree, but it does highlight how much society has
changed in our lifetime. The standards many of us were brought up
on are no longer the cultural norm. Doubtless, much of our moral
thinking needed to be updated but that doesn’t mean we should live
without standards of behavior (e.g., civility, honesty, consideration
for others, etc.). We have to continually examine and ask ourselves,
what are the virtues we need to uphold, individually and as a
community? What are the moral standards we must cling to? Why
should we care about honor as people?
      I think it’s to protect the innocence of the innocent, to preserve
the integrity of our relationships, to restore the dignity of the
exploited, and to defend the character of our community from all that
corrupts it and threatens its survival—in whatever way we can
thoughtfully and wisely apply these aspirations to life. These are the
laws of our life, the rules of the road, and the words to live by.
Without them, we are lost; but with them, we will live, and we will live
well together.
                                     The Rev. Dr. Paul C. Hayes
                                     Noank Baptist Church, Noank CT
                                     6 March 2011




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