I want to say: "Seriously!?!"
Exactly what is the purpose of a community’s laws if not to legislate morality? What perchance, are the laws prohibiting assault, murder, rape, or theft? Are these laws not made, in fact, to “legislate morality”? If laws are not instituted to legislate morality among people, then why do we have any laws at all? Why not just abide by the anarchist code of “Might Makes Right”? If I am stronger, healthier, wealthier, and better equipped than another human being say, my neighbor, why shouldn't I be free to force my will upon him/her without consequence from the leaders of the community or the community itself? What would be wrong with that? After all, isn't that the code our defacto government is presently operating under in exercising its foreign policy? Is it not for all intents and purposes, a lawless foreign policy?
When the people of a community “legislate morality” by instituting and enforcing laws prohibiting immoral acts and providing adequate punishment for those that commit such unlawful acts, they are, indeed, not violating the ideal of separation of church and state. They are simply enacting and enforcing community agreed upon laws that are based on the whole of natural law and the community's collective conscience. If the tenets of natural law are not enforced, lawlessness and chaos results and all that remains for humans is the law of the jungle, “Might Makes Right”.
Do you and your loved ones really want to live like animals?
the Lutheran Watchman © 2015