Response to Leishman by Merle Hertzler
I read Rory Leishmanâ..s editorial, â..Christianity melds reason with faithâ. with great interest. Leishman quotes from my website (www.geocities.com/questioningpage) and announces that I have â..got it wrong.â. Well I donâ..t know, but maybe I must take a closer look to see if I indeed have gotten it wrong.
Leishman criticizes a recent Supreme Court decision, and complains that many Canadians fall into grievous error because they â..rely on reason alone as a guide for moral judgment.â. But reason has long been the standard by which democratic governments strive to govern. Shall we turn away from reason?
Leishman says that, for many, â..Holy Scripture is the ultimate authority on all questions of faith and morality.â. But what of Deut. 22:11 which forbids wearing clothes of mixed fabrics? Is this verse the ultimate answer to that question? Leishman mentions that verse, and infers that it is an obsolete ceremonial law. But how would one know this is an obsolete law? The New Testament is not at all clear on that.
But even if we judge this law obsolete, that does not clear up the problem. For that law is in the early scripture. At one time, this was the only scripture people knew. And the same scripture allowed slavery. That is the problem. Are we really to believe there was a time in which slavery was right but wearing mixed fabrics was wrong? Those who followed the books of Moses at that time would have thought so. But reason would disagree. Would not a literal following of scriptures in those days have yielded a wrong morality? We cannot ignore this problem by saying the commands are now obsolete. What about the time in which they were taken as relevant? If scripture was wrong back then, how can one be sure that following the updated scriptures is the best way to morality now?
The Mind Set Free: Faith and Reason