Note to self: Use whenever opponent claims that "the government shouldn't impose morality"
In fact, of course, the very nature of law is to impose the conscience of the community on the individual. The only question is On What Basis, and With What Limits?
The community's conscience imposes itself everyday, by direct state interference using the power of the police and jail systems, on those who have no personal problem with pedophilia, theft, murder for a Higher Cause, tax evasion, and heroin distribution and who just want to be free of the Encroachments of Caesar on these worthwhile activities that bring them so much personal fulfillment and happiness. If we, being normal, support such state interference with human autonomy and freedom, we call it "good government". If we oppose it, we call it "legislating morality" or "social engineering".
That's why "You can't legislate morality" is such an empty phrase to me. What on earth *is* law but legislated morality? We think it immoral and wrong to oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow and so we pass laws protecting immigrant workers, street kids, and 9/11 widows, for instance. We believe the purely mystical doctrine "all human beings are created equal" (a doctrine which, to Aristotle, would have been completely contradicted by the empirical evidence of the senses) and pass laws against slavery and giving women the vote. Voila! Legislated morality. Good government or social engineering? The only basis from which to judge is the basis, ultimately, of natural law and revelation. Otherwise it's whatever the majority thinks it is, according the whim of the zeitgeist.
It does not follow from this that *all* morality should be legislated. I don't want a law making sure everybody honors the Sabbath. I don't think homosexual activity should be criminalized. I don't think we need laws commanding people to pray without ceasing or to believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved.
Civil law is *floor* of human behavior, not the upper atmospher. It is supposed to guard against the *lowest* aspects of human behavior so that a civil society can function. What we *really* mean when we say you can't legislate morality is that the Law cannot put the things of the Spirit in the heart. It cannot instill love of neighbor, for instance. But it can and does punish those who can't even bring themselves to keep from harming their neighbor. It says, if you can't love your neighbor, at least don't beat him to death with a baseball bat or cheat him out of money. That's a really moral function. It's just not the *highest* moral function.
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