We've heard it all our lives: "You can't legislate morality." Cliches aren't like old soldiers, of whom MacArthur said, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away," because this cliche has never faded away. It, like all cliches, is catchy, pleasing to the ear. But it's wrong, very, very wrong.
The truth: all laws legislate morality. How so? What, exactly, is it that all laws do? Laws are a declaration that one behavior is right and its opposite behavior is wrong. Right and wrong. That's morality; laws legislate morality.
The reason the cliche won't die is because human beings lump religion with morality. (Turek) Legislation doesn't declare that immersion is right and sprinkling wrong. Legislation isn't in place to tell you to join Denomination X, but don't join Y or to observe the Lord's Supper every Sunday. That would be legislating religion.
Various groups are always trying to tell everybody how to treat one another. That's morality. Laws declare that we are not to steal from each other, murder each other, print lies about one another, drive drunk and slaughter each other, and laws say we're not to defraud one another. That's not religion; you don't have to believe in God or be a Christian to believe that those things are wrong. But you do have to believe in God to be able to ground laws in something more than your opinions, that is, you do need God to justify laws and to say that a certain morality is absolute, but you don't need God to create legislation.
IT'S SLIPPING OUR NOTICE
It's of interest that many an atheist does indeed attempt and sometimes succeeds in legislating their brand of morality. Many atheists support and work for legislation to support abortion, same-sex marriage, and socialized health care (among other things). They call for legislation to enshrine these "rights" into law because, they say, "It's the moral thing to do."
HOUSTON: PROPOSITION 1
In support of his preferences, the atheist will appeal to morality every time. Take Houston, for example. Houston, Texas (put your hand over your heart when you read, "Texas") has just endured a long battle to legislate morality. The question when a person entered the voting booth in Houston to vote on Proposition 1 was, "Whose morality am I voting to legislate?" The question was not, "Can we legislate morality?"
Those supporting Proposition 1 used morality to encourage others to vote for the proposal. Hillary Clinton, although not a Houstonian, got into the fray, saying, "No one should face discrimination for who they are or who they love--I support efforts for equality in Houston and beyond." President Obama, although not a Houstonian, also weighed in, proclaiming, "We're confident that the citizens of Houston will vote in favor of fairness and equality." ("Fairness," "discrimination," "equality," and "love"--those are all moral arguments.)
ENTER THE HOUSTONIAN: SALLY FIELD
Two-time Academy Award winner, Sally Field, a native Houstonian, flew to the city to champion the measure in the name of "a right," and to bring God into the matter: "I think it will wake up a lot of people if it doesn’t pass, but
please god (sic) let’s not wake them up, let’s let it pass already.” A right? That sounds like a moral argument. Sally Field said that the opponents of Proposition 1 were "Lying, lying, lying." (Again, a moral argument; to be lying means there is truth.) The mayor of the fair city said that the passing of the proposition would show that Houston was a city of "tolerance." Tolerance? That's morality.
Fallen man just can't help himself; he (or she) just has to go all moral. It's in our DNA. (Take a look at Romans 2:15: morality "is written in all our hearts.")
Although atheists reject an absolute morality grounded in God, they enjoy pretending to be Him. Did you know that THE leading atheist in the world, Richard Dawkins, has written his own Ten Commandments, as did Christopher Hitchens? Since their Big Ten aren't grounded in God, their Ten Commandments should be called, "My Ten Preferences," but the point is that they think that everyone should obey what they've written. So what is that? That's putting their morality into commandments and telling you and me to bow and bow now. Fallen man just can't help himself; he has to pretend to be God. (Read Psalm 2:1-4 to get God's viewpoint on such pretense.)
The support for Houston's Proposition 1 is a study in rebellion: the human being will call on morality to support immorality. The human being will call evil good and good evil. Although Eric Fromm wasn't thinking in a biblical sense, his verdict is true: "Man is the freak of the universe."
PAY BACK
The results are in: Proposition 1 failed to carry the day by a 62-38% margin. So, now those that supported Proposition 1 are beating the drums, calling for Houston to be punished for its "intolerance." (There's that moral word again.) But wait. What? What is this? Doesn't punishment involve a moral stance? Isn't punishment for those who've done "wrong?" More morality.
The question is not: Can we legislate morality? The question is: Whose morality are we going to legislate?
This idea of people being little Gods and having the right to rule over others and legislate their" politically correct" morality is a severe threat to our freedom. Even in the workplace today, we see politically correct morality seeping in and being instituted as company policy. If anyone is "offended" by something you say, whether they understand it or not, they can file a grievance. If an "ethics" committee, whose job it is to inforce with gestapo - like harshness the companies' morality, determines you have broken company policy, you are dead..........go find another job. .....What is next? This is a slippery slope. How lethal will our society be willing to get in order to inforce their humanistic morality on others?
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