Minority Report

Malcolm Duncan - published in Direction magazine (October 2024)

Whatever the majority view might be we must hold to the truth, argues Malcolm Duncan. Otherwise, we are finished

We live in a culture where the majority rules. There is strength in such a view for political stability, witnessed in the landslide victory of Labour in July’s General Election, and in its antithesis in the French elections of June and July. But there is also danger in such a view – after all, Labour had a lower percentage of the general vote share this time around, but a much bigger number of seats, which led to their decisive victory.

Meanwhile, the French system gave the political far right a majority in their first round, which led to grave uncertainty in their national life until a rise collaboration in the centre and left of French politics for the second round of voting blocked the far right.

A majority voice is not always what it appears. When it comes to this and moral choices, it is definitely a dangerous assumption to believe that the majority view is the right one.

Assisted Dying

Lord Falconer, who served as the Lord Chancellor from 2003-2007, introduced a Bill on assisted dying to the House of Lords this summer, which he hoped would be picked up by an MP and then given sufficient government debate time to become law. Kim Leadbeater, Labour MP for Spen Valley, then presented the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in parliament for first reading on 16 October 2024, before publishing it on 11 November.

The Bill would allow adults with a predicted six months to live to get medical help to end their own lives. This move has been mooted in Britain before, but this time around it has some heavyweight support from people such as Dame Esther Rantzen, and the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.

According to one survey, 75 per cent of people in the UK now support assisted dying, with only 14 per cent opposed (although the basis of the survey has some question marks against it)¹.

Marriage and pregnancy

Three types of lies on another issue, a different survey showed that 73 per cent of Anglicans believe that sexual intercourse outside of marriage is permissible (about the same proportion as in the general population). This is up from 54 per cent in 2013 and 33 per cent in 1985. The same survey showed that 61 per cent of Roman Catholic women believe that a woman should have the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, with 70 per cent of the UK population holding the same opinion.²

Even this apparent ‘majority’ view of Anglicans and Roman Catholics on these issues begs another question – what would the percentages be on these questions of Anglicans and Catholics around the world? Perhaps Mark Twain and Disraeli were right when they suggested that there were three types of lies – the third of which was statistics?

Whatever the swing of UK public opinion might be on these issues, along with a myriad of others, the core question for followers of Jesus is whether we take our ethical and moral leads from the majority (or minority for that matter) view in our culture or whether we take them from somewhere else? My deep conviction is that we must resist adopting a ‘majority is right’ mentality at all costs. Our views are shaped by the will of God as expressly set out in the Word of God. This is our flagstaff, our anchor, our true north, our unmovable compass.

Understanding the times

Nestled within the lists of tribal groups who rallied to King David at Mount Hebron just before and after his anointing as King of Israel, we read of warriors and leaders, mighty leaders and strong commanders. There are also a tiny number of people who are described in this way: “Of Issachar, those who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, two hundred chiefs, and all their kindred under command.” ³

They were a tiny percentage of the people listed as gathering around David, yet their position and perspective was pivotal. They carried the double gifts of ‘understanding the times’ and ‘knowing what Israel ought to do’.

The same is true of Caleb and Joshua, the only two of the spies who brought back a favourable report from the land of Canaan, whose minority view actually reflected the will of God for Israel much more closely than the majority view did.⁴ In intercession, Abraham pleaded for Sodom5 and Moses for Israel,⁶ both in a minority of one. Young David stood alone against Goliath,⁷ and Josiah was young, vulnerable and in the minority when he led the reforms of Israel after reading the ‘book of the law’.⁸

Indeed, Israel herself was not chosen by God because of her majority, her strength or her prowess.⁹ The church of Jesus Christ has always been in the minority too. A small band of followers of the Messiah, with just 120 in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost, we have never been the biggest faction, and the majority view has never been what has shaped our view of the world. Indeed, quite the opposite is true. We are told that the world will hate us because it hates Jesus.¹⁰

The Bible makes it clear that people love darkness more than light¹¹ and that in the last days even those who are in the church will want to hear preaching and teaching that affirms their views rather than challenges them.¹² It is time for us to challenge the assumption that the majority view is always the right one.

Biblical orthodox Christianity may be out of step with our culture on issues such as sexuality, gender, assisted dying, termination of pregnancy and sexual conduct outside of marriage, but we are not out of step with God’s Word. Across the years, the church’s commitment to the truth of Scripture, particularly the work of the Evangelical Church, was what drove changes in the wider culture in how we treated people from different ethnic backgrounds, how we viewed children, our approaches to education, the rights of women, and even the wider issues of human rights in general.

Telling the truth

Tom Holland’s book, ‘Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind’, argues powerfully that the very fabric of Western civilisation would unravel if the principles and truths that Christianity brought to it were removed. And the principles and truths of Christian faith are often deeply contested, or profoundly revised, by the wider culture.

A major part of the call of a pastor/teacher is to tell the truth to their congregants and to the world. That truth is not based on the ‘majority’ view. It is not shaped by revisionist norms or mores.

It does not seek to be divisive or dismissive, but it cannot avoid coming face to face with a person’s preferred assumptions about themselves or a culture’s assumptions about itself. It involves challenging the dominant narrative, not being subsumed by it.

Many, if not most, people in the church of Jesus Christ are confronted by misconceptions and untruths about themselves every day of their lives – at work, in school, and in the public square. They can be ridiculed and dismissed by those around them, or they can be reduced by the belief that what they carry as Christians is a story about how to be nice, or good. The ubiquitous assumption that Christians and churches should simply be good social centres is a corrosive half-truth that will eat away the heart and passion of the gospel from the inside out if we are not careful.

Pastors do well to remember that we must tell the fuller picture – that the gospel has the power to save someone and make them a new creation.

Our truth must contain the call to radical transformation of every person, and therefore every community, that will submit to it. There is no part of our brokenness that God cannot transform. There are no areas of our lives that are off limits. The one who made us is the only one who can re-make us. God is the only source of lasting hope in a despairing world.

This may be a minority report – but it is the truth, and we must hold to it. Otherwise, we are finished.

Malcolm Duncan
 

Statement published by Elim on 20 November 2024

 

FOOTNOTES

¹ https://www.itv.com/news/2024-03-11/overwhelming-majority-support-assisted-dying-largest-ever-poll-says. Accessed 1 August 2024.

² https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/most-anglicans-support-same-sex-couples-survey-finds. Accessed 1 August 2024.

³ 1 Chronicles 12:32

⁴ Numbers 13:25-33

⁵ Genesis 18:26-33

⁶ Exodus 33:12-23

⁷ 1 Samuel 17

⁸ 2 Kings 22

⁹ Deuteronomy 7:6-10

¹⁰ John 15:18

¹¹ John 3:19

¹² 2 Timothy 4:3-4

All Bible quotations from the New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSV).

This article first appeared in the October 2024 edition of Direction Magazine, with details of the bill's publication date and Elim's statement added later. For further details about Direction, please click here.