- If I were a Christian lawmaker, and it was up to me to allow or disallow issue "X", am I morally required to make issue "X" illegal because I know that "X" is a sin against God?
I say no. I say the purpose of the law is to protect the liberty of the people under the law. The law is not meant to drive morality. Not only is not meant to, but it can't. You can't create moral people from from the top down. Morality is created from the bottom up, by changing the individual people under the law.
My point here, is that I think many people confuse what government should be. It shouldn't be in the business of enforcing a moral code. It should be in the business of creating an environment where all moral codes can co-exist, so long as the rights of every individual are preserved. And if you as an individual know that "X" is a sin against God, that's fine, and you should go about changing the people under the law so that they don't have hearts which want to do "X". The key difference here is that supporting a government that allows "X", does not mean that you morally condone "X". A societies' morality comes from the bottom up, not from the top down.
Nanner,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your thoughts. You are certainly correct that you cannot legislate morality. However, I would invite you to investigate the purpose of government a little further, in a biblical context, and put some contextual limitations around your response.
In Romans 13:4-5 Paul writes, " They (government) are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience." (parenthesis mine).
Government is one of the three divine, earthly institutions ordained by God. 1. the church, 2. the marriage (family, home), 3. the government. The Government's primary role is to contain evil in the world. So, since the government cannot legislate morality, it can, and should, legislate and use necessary force to contain evil. For example, the hot topic of abortion comes to the fore. Should it be illegal? Well, this question involves you answering another, more poinient question. Is abortion evil? This all comes down to how one views the sanctity of life and the beginning of life (as people have argued for years).
Another would be, should we get involved in foreign conflict militarily? Answering this question would probably involve questions like, 'are innocent people suffering and perishing?' 'are they at immanent risk of harm?' 'is our country at a security risk?' etc. These questions all back up the "Just War" concept.
So, although I agree with your blog, it should be further developed. Where is the line between immorality and all out evil?
Another topic to pursue is the idea of submission to government. When is it right to NOT submit?
Just some thoughts...
Rob