Hearts Follow Laws

In Super Bowl IV, Minnesota Vikings defender and part of the Purple People Eaters, Jim Marshall, made a legendary play—just not in the way he intended. After recovering a fumble, he sprinted down the field with clarity, energy, and passion—right into the end zone. One problem: it was the wrong end zone. He’d scored for the Kansas City Chiefs!

Marshall didn’t lack effort or ability; he was simply misoriented. In the heat of the moment, he forgot what direction the game was meant to be played—and it cost him and his team dearly. Can you imagine his teammates trying to catch him to turn him around, but he just ran harder and faster because of the encouragement he thought they were giving him?

This story is truly one of the most tragic tales in NFL history—if you’re a Vikings fan like me, that is. This story not only highlights tragedy; it highlights the dangers of not having the right orientation or understanding of the direction of things. In Jim Marshall’s case, it was just a game—yes, the Super Bowl is still just a game—but I believe a similar misorientation can be seen in the Church and pro-life movement today when it comes to politics.

With passion and conviction, many believers have charged onto the field of cultural engagement—only to run in the wrong direction. We’ve been told that hearts must change before laws can. That culture must shift before justice can reign. That we’re not ready to act—because we haven’t yet won the people.

But what if we’ve misread the field entirely? What if we’ve believed a myth? And what if every step we take in that direction—no matter how sincere—is scoring for the other team?

Culture Is Moral—So It Needs a Moral Anchor

You’ve heard it a thousand times:

“We must change hearts and minds before we can end abortion.”

It sounds wise. Reasonable. Even strategic. But beneath that phrase is a deeper belief—one that governs much of Christian political thought today: that culture is upstream from politics. Or, as it’s more popularly phrased:

“Politics is downstream from culture.”

This is the mantra of incrementalism. It’s the framework behind pro-life strategy. And it’s the assumption that paralyzes the Church in the face of national sin. I can hear the words ringing in my ears: “We must change hearts and minds first, we must change hearts and minds first, we must change hearts and minds!”

But what if it’s backwards? What if culture is not the engine, but the result? What if law is not the reflection of our values, but the formation of them?

Let’s test it.

Culture is not arbitrary. It is moral in nature—what a society celebrates, tolerates, or condemns is always rooted in a sense of right and wrong. And anything moral must be anchored in a standard, a judge, an authority.

As Christians—and as heirs of Western civilization—we look to Scripture as that authority. It is God’s revelation of right and wrong, justice and injustice, righteousness and rebellion that is our standard for our lives and politically. It is the law of God that is the standard God holds nations up to when He judges them.

And what does Scripture say about the law?

“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul.” — Psalm 19:7

 “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.” — Galatians 3:24

That’s not passive language. That’s formational power.

God’s law converts, teaches, disciplines, and shapes. It doesn’t simply reveal the condition of a people—it disciples them.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” (Psalm 19:7) reveals that God’s law is not merely informative—it is transformational. God’s law changes people—yes, hearts and minds. God’s law isn’t being presented here as something that is to be hidden or inaccessible to people who have wrong hearts and minds; rather, it is the tool that transforms these hearts and minds into conformity with God Himself. It is vital to understand the nature of law—it transforms people.

I imagine many are asking, “Okay, but how does it do that?” This is where Galatians 3:24 brings great clarity:

“The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.”

Like a schoolmaster or teacher, God’s law trains our hearts and brings us to Christ. The law simply reminds us of what is right and that we are guilty when we do wrong. It is like an elephant in the room—it is impossible to ignore and can certainly make us feel uncomfortable.

What Scripture is teaching with these two verses is that culture, in fact, is not upstream from politics—it is, in fact, downstream. It is the nature of law to impact hearts and minds and transform people through the instruction of what is right and what is wrong.

This isn’t just an abstract theological theory, though. We can see exactly how this has played out in our culture on one of the most important social issues of our day:

Gay “Marriage”

If politics is downstream from culture, then gay “marriage” should have become normal in American life long before it became accepted as the law of the land. But that’s not what happened.

For decades—even into the early 2000s—gay “marriage” was rightly rejected by American culture. Even liberal politicians, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, publicly opposed it.

Then came legal recognition:

• Fiat court decisions

• Redefinitions of civil rights

• The 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which wrongly mandated nationwide recognition of the abomination pact

And what happened?

In less than 10 years, public sentiment flipped. Gay “marriage” didn’t just become accepted—it became seemingly untouchable. To truly oppose it today is to alienate yourself in every presidential election since 2016—even though only a small percentage of the population actually participates in it.

How did that happen?

Judicial opinions—wrongly accepted as laws—drove the culture. Back in 2010, you could find a show depicting a gay couple or two, but it was rare. Today, you cannot turn on the TV without seeing a commercial that highlights a gay couple.

The State spoke with moral authority—and culture obeyed.

What This Means for the Abortion Debate

If law is a tutor—if it converts the soul—then every day we delay the establishment of righteous law, we are:

• Discipling the nation in injustice

• Teaching people to tolerate evil

• Reinforcing the lie that some lives can be legally discarded while others are protected

This is where abolitionism differs from the pro-life movement at its core.

Abolitionism says:

“Establish righteous law, and culture will follow.”

The pro-life movement says:

“Wait for culture to soften, then try for better law.”

Only one of those reflects the Bible’s view of law. Only one of those matches what we’ve seen in history. Only one of those actually produces equal justice.

To say we must wait for hearts to change before we write just laws is to reject God’s design. Law isn’t the result of moral formation; rather, law is moral formation—and law brings transformation to hearts and minds.

Justice or injustice will flow from our laws into our culture. Our culture will be transformed, trained, and taught by our laws. The question is: “What are our laws teaching?”

When it comes to incremental laws that regulate abortion, our culture is being taught that justice is not equal, life is not always valuable, and the imago Dei is not intrinsic—it is extrinsic, produced by a heartbeat or an arbitrary number of weeks from conception.

It’s time we stopped repeating the myths of pragmatists who have wrongly charted the flow of transformation and time we started believing what Scripture says:

• The law is perfect.

• The law converts.

• The law tutors.

If we want hearts to reject murder, we must write laws that call it what it is. If we want minds to recognize that life is valuable from conception, we must legislate the truth that life is sacred. If we want to end abortion, we must write laws that truly abolish it.

Politics do not follow culture. Culture follows politics.

We will never disciple a nation by regulating its sins. We must confront evil with the clarity of righteous law. We will never change enough hearts and minds while our laws are transforming and teaching our culture that some of our preborn neighbors do not have the right to live.