The morally disarmed church

A young couple sits in front of a computer screen, scrolling through their options.

“This one looks good,” she says. “Haven’t you always liked the color blue?”

“Yes,” he replies. “But they say that one has a chance of expensive problems down the road.”

They are not shopping for a sofa or a car. They are logged on to an embryo screening service, choosing between potential children. Attributes such as disease risk and projected IQ are shown as if they were product descriptions in a catalog. One embryo has a 13% higher chance of blue eyes. Another carries a marker for dyslexia. A third is flagged as “optimal.” With just a few clicks, their ideal child is chosen from among less desirable options.

This is not science fiction. Biotechnology companies now offer parents genomic screening tools to select one life and discard others based on “desirability.” This is nothing less than eugenics, cloaked in the slick language of a Silicon Valley startup.

Such practices are horrific, but what makes them especially tragic is the church’s silence. While Christians are called to make Christ’s will supreme in society, many lack the clarity to oppose modern ethical atrocities—or to question whether they should speak at all. 

The church has become morally disarmed, a casualty of two theological failures: the denial of God’s law as a restraint on societal evil and the rejection of natural law’s universal witness. To be faithful, we must recover a moral theology that is Biblically rooted, publicly intelligible, and bold in confronting sin.

The first failure is that many evangelicals have forgotten that God’s law does more than convict sinners; it restrains evil in society. Scripture teaches that all people are totally depraved, corrupted by the fall. Yet total depravity does not mean maximum depravity. Sinners do not sin in every possible way to the maximum extent at all times. This restraint on depravity is not because of man’s goodness, but because of God’s common grace in curbing sin’s full expression through conscience, societal norms, and divinely ordained authorities.

Think of this function of God’s law as a dam holding back a flood. It does not eliminate sin, but it prevents us from living among the terror of total moral anarchy. Historically, Christians understood that loving one’s neighbor included upholding God’s moral standards in society. Yet many modern evangelicals often reduce “love your neighbor” to personal evangelism and private piety, retreating from cultural engagement while the society around them promotes wickedness. This abandonment of the moral law’s societal role undermines our witness to Christ’s lordship.

Some Christians may object, arguing that emphasizing public morality distracts from gospel proclamation. But these callings are not at odds. Sharing Christ’s saving grace and opposing societal evil both flow from love: love for God, against whom every sin is an offense, and love for our neighbors who bear His image. A church indifferent to societal evil fails to love as Christ commands.

The second failure is the loss of confidence in natural law—the moral truths God embedded in creation and inscribed on every conscience (Romans 2:14–15). Scripture reveals God’s will clearly and definitively, and His world echoes that same order. Every unbeliever who cries out for justice or affirms human dignity is responding to this law, even while suppressing it (Romans 1:18–20). Natural law is not a rival to Scripture but its witness in the created order, revealing the same God of truth.

To appeal to natural law is not to dilute our commitment to Scripture. Rather, it is to affirm that God’s Word describes reality as it really is. When Christians oppose embryo screening by arguing that every human life has inherent worth, they articulate a truth both revealed in Scripture and woven into creation—one that even the unbeliever can recognize, however dimly.

Yet some Christians fall into a kind of functional moral defeatism. They assume the consciences of unbelievers are so broken that public moral reasoning is futile. This error leaves the public square defenseless against wickedness and betrays a failure to trust that God’s truth, written in His Word and reflected in His world, is intelligible and authoritative for all.

To faithfully engage with the ethical issues of our age, the church must recover a moral theology that weds Biblical fidelity to public clarity. This begins with remembering the law’s restraining power so that believers may stand against evil not only in their hearts, but in their neighborhoods, country, and world.

We must also recover natural law reasoning, demonstrating how God’s moral order supports arguments against atrocities like embryo screening not only by citing chapter and verse, but by appealing to what all people know deep down to be true: that every human life is sacred, not subject to selection, scoring, or disposal—a truth rooted in Scripture (Genesis 1:27) and affirmed by reason. 

This witness requires boldness. The church can be no mere bystander. Armed with God’s Word and creation’s testimony, we must speak clearly, faithfully, and unashamedly. To remain silent is to betray our calling. To act is to honor God, whose law is true, good, and binding on all.