Personal autonomy is not a great moral standard, but culture treats it like it is. Although not a new idea, its increasing prevalence and the rate at which it is being used to make moral decisions brings it into the spotlight.
Much of the discourse surrounding politics is more or less centered on the question:
“Do I have the right to do whatever I want, or is there a higher moral standard than myself?”
For a relatively short period of history, culture understood the answer to be “no.” Rights and freedoms are given to us by God, and as such, do not infringe upon another person’s rights.
Life is sacred because we are made in the image of God. We do not have the right to harm that image. We don’t have the “right” to self-harm, and we don’t have the “right” to murder.
Freedom is only truly free when it is in submission to the moral standard God created the world with. When the highest moral standard is my own desires, rather than God’s law, I become enslaved to sinful passions, and chaos and lawlessness ensue.
For most of the last couple of centuries, culture actually understood this. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case. Believe it or not, multiple states across the U.S. have legalized assisted suicide and Illinois is hoping to be next on the list.
SB3499 was introduced during last year’s general assembly and reintroduced early this year. It looks like it will pass. The bill would legalize assisted suicide for terminally ill patients with very few safeguards.
Advocates for assisted suicide claim it provides “dignity in dying” and a “painless” way for terminally ill people to end their lives. As we’ve seen, it does neither. Instead, assisted suicide demeans the dignity of human life and sells the lie that those who are suffering intensely can be their own god.
Abortion is another indicator of personal autonomy as a moral arbiter. Think of its rallying cry – “my body, my choice.” It says a woman shouldn’t have to sacrifice her desires – whether noble or sinful – to take care of a baby.
LGBTQ ideology is another example. Slogans like “Love is love” and claiming gender to be a social construct are just two ways of saying your thoughts and feelings should determine reality, regardless of what biology and facts say.
This same flawed understanding is also why crime is on the rise. If your thoughts, desires, and feelings determine the moral decisions you make, then why wouldn’t stealing be acceptable? Or violent crime? It’s merely service to the god of self.
Personal autonomy is a good thing – but not in an absolute form. Humans are inherently sinful. When our impulses become our moral standard instead of Scripture, culture becomes selfish, violent and cruel.
When we turn from serving God to serving personal autonomy, we become enslaved to the passions and desires of our flesh.
It’s a good thing to live in a country that respects the God-given rights and freedoms of its citizens. Nations that do not recognize some level of personal autonomy are inherently oppressive. But if personal autonomy is the ultimate authority on moral decisions, humans will always go back to where our inherently sinful nature takes us –ourselves. We make horrible gods.
Fellow brothers and sisters, we have an opportunity to use the worldview issues so frequently discussed in our culture to point out the futility and loneliness that come from making personal autonomy your god.
True hope and belonging – and freedom – come only from Christ who created this world and holds it together.
