Students at the Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy receive instructions in diverse subjects including apologetics, epistemology, worldview, and ethics. During our three-hour ethics dialogue, students were placed in groups and assigned questions to examine, and where possible, to solve. Their mission was to break down the issues presented by each question into their various component parts, identify the critical available facts, search for applicable biblical laws and principles, and attempt to determine a policy result which is consistent with Scripture.
The following question (paraphrased) presented at the Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy this year requires the student to examine a host of foundational ethical issues, and the implications of their conclusions, including the question: May one support an unqualified candidate who advocates the shedding of innocent blood, if it appears possible that less innocent blood will be shed under that candidate than another?
You live in the land of Baal where your “dictators” are elected by the people. Two men are running in the major party system of your land for the office of Top Dictator, an office which vests him with the ability to make life and death decisions. The first has the name of Adolf H., and the second, Joseph S. The polls indicate that the race is neck and neck, and your vote will really matter. There are no other candidates running for the office. The first candidate promises that if he is elected he will pass a law that 50% of all three year old children in the country must be passed through the fires of Baal. The second, who describes himself as a “pro-life moderate,” says that he opposes passing three-year old children through the fires of Baal, unless the child was a victim of rape, or the economic health of the family was threatened by the burden of caring for the three-year-old, in which case he would allow the child to be placed through the fires of Baal. Studies indicate that 90% more children will die if the first candidate is elected, than the second. How will you vote?