Morality by What Standard?
The prophet Isaiah warned, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” A modern example, as Dr. Al Mohler recently described on The Briefing, is the “moral incoherence” of believing life is sacred and valuable while also rejecting any consequences for those who take it.
Recently, the state of Georgia charged a woman with the murder of her 22- to 24-week-old baby, who died within an hour of birth after her mother took abortion pills at home to terminate the pregnancy. This is the first murder charge in the state related to its six-week abortion ban. The Washington Post article that covered this story concluded by citing a 2022 Economist/YouGov poll. According to the poll, 19% of respondents think a woman who has an abortion that violates state law should be charged with murder, while 54% think she should not be charged, and 26% are unsure.
A more recent 2025 Pew Research report described the moral confusion about life in even starker terms. Entitled “What do Americans Consider Immoral?”, the study asked about various behaviors ranging from eating meat to abortion. According to their data, “47% of Americans say having an abortion is morally wrong, while about half say an abortion is not a moral issue (31%) or is morally acceptable (21%).”
An interesting parallel exists between the abortion issue and the other great moral evil in American history: slavery. Americans made many compromises in the decades leading up to the Civil War in attempts to address slavery, most notably the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This law sanctioned “popular sovereignty,” the idea that federal territories should decide by a simple majority whether they wanted slavery or not. That law provided the seeds for the expansion of slavery throughout America, including in territories where it was previously forbidden.
Abraham Lincoln responded by appealing to the moral standard found in the Declaration of Independence. Given the principle of human equality articulated there and the natural law, even majorities must obey and teach that slavery is wrong. According to Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, who authored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, was guilty of “blowing out the moral lights around us.”
In the 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court decision, the Court overturned Roe on a legal technicality, rather than on the basis of a created, moral order that establishes that every human life is sacred. Because the Court returned the question of legality to the states, the issue of abortion is now handled in a way like popular sovereignty. The Dobbs decision was a major victory for the pro-life movement, but because the Court failed to declare abortion morally wrong, some states have now enshrined it as a basic human right.
Where does that leave us in 2026? Like with slavery and Jim Crow laws, the United States is fundamentally divided state by state on a question of essential moral status and incredible moral gravity.
In such a setting, these words from C.S. Lewis, on the moral decay of culture, are just as appropriate as when he wrote them:
For my part, I believe we ought to work not only at spreading the Gospel (that certainly) but also at a certain preparation for the Gospel. It is necessary to recall many to the law of nature before we talk about God. For Christ promises forgiveness of sins, but what is that to those who, since they do not know the law of nature, do not know that they have sinned? Who will take medicine unless he knows he is in the grip of disease? Moral relativity is the enemy we have to overcome before we tackle Atheism.
The ongoing debates about abortion and a myriad of other contemporary issues—from gender dysphoria and the LGBTQ crusade to Critical Theory and immigration—underscore the importance of returning to and answering the basic moral questions: Is there a transcendent moral authority? By what standard do we judge what is right and wrong? Is every human being valuable or not?
Christians believe that God is the ultimate standard for all morality, above any traditions, values, laws, norms, or majority opinions. By this objective moral standard, revealed in both natural law and biblical revelation, all actions and policies can and should be measured. That requires not only pushing back against the moral relativism that has captivated hearts and minds, and still pervades contemporary culture, but also appealing to and upholding God’s clear moral standards amid vast moral confusion.
This Breakpoint was co-authored by Andrew Carico.
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Photo Credit: © Getty Images/arsenisspyros
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
