What is ‘reasonable’ in a society losing its head? – Evangelicals Now

Be reasonable! That’s a cry I’ve not heard for some time. Maybe ‘reason’ is out of style in our modern ‘what you feel is what you are society’.But one aspect of the controversial Scottish Government Hate Crime Act is that it is predicated on what a ‘reasonable person’ would think what has been reported is hateful, likely to stir up hatred and cause ‘fear and alarm’. But there is the rub – what is a ‘reasonable person’?

A major worry about the Hate Crime Act is that it will be used as a political measure to punish those who do not follow the values of the current governing elites. That is why feminists, such as the brave and heroic J.K. Rowling, have stood up against the Bill. The trans activists would declare that it is ‘unreasonable’ and hateful to misgender someone. Others of us think that biology is a pretty reasonable basis for determining sex and gender! The trans ideology is promoted through the education system, corporate boards, and political parties. They all assume that their position is so reasonable that anyone who disagrees with them must be unreasonable… and therefore guilty.

One of the key problems here is that laws are being used by the governing elites to ‘change the culture’. They use the law to send out a message, and then use the threat of the police to intimidate and change. They also use the schools for social engineering, seeking to override the wishes and values of the parents. Nudge theory, political indoctrination in schools, and intimidation of all ideologies except the approved State ideology are all far more important than ‘reason’ in the government of our society.

The concern here is that what the elites would consider ‘reasonable’ is not what most of the public would think to be reasonable. Again take the example of transgender. When I was involved in discussion with the Scottish Government over their GRA (Gender Recognition Act), I had a meeting with the education minister responsible at that time. I told her that in any debate between me and her, in front of any group of parents in Scotland, it would result in a massive win for me, because most Scottish parents did not think that men could become women. Her response was that most parents were just ignorant. In other words they are unreasonable.

Stuart Waiton, lecturer in criminology in Abertay University, Dundee, is surely accurate when he says that ‘the new law about “hate” will be used in a way that appears reasonable to the professional and legal classes but entirely unreasonable to the rest of us’.

The issue is that when our society rejects Christianity it is also rejecting the roots of Christianity – including reason. But such has been the erosion of understanding that the words ‘reason’ and Christianity are not often put together. But what does the Lord say? ‘Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool’ (Isa. 1:18).

When Paul was accused of being insane by Festus, his response was: ‘I am not insane, most excellent Festus.’ He continued: ‘What I am saying is true and reasonable’ (Acts 26:25). Christians have always argued for a ‘reasonable’ faith. The governing elites in Paul’s day seemed to think that believing in the resurrection was de facto unreasonable. He showed them otherwise.

The point about Christian reasonableness is that it is ‘evident to all’ (Phil. 4:5). Reason is not bullying and hectoring. Reason doesn’t require the law to enforce or justify it. The answer to hatred is not to privilege some groups in law, thus causing others to feel hate, or be hated; but rather for Christian reason to prevail in a society that is slowly losing its head.