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Yes, You Can Legislate Morality
By: Pastor Andrew Isker
Any time a conservative Christian proposes laws to address issues of public morality, he is always told “you can’t legislate morality.” This is a mantra that is deep in the bones of liberal, democratic society. You hear it all the time.
Want to pass laws to stop abortion? “You can’t legislate morality.”
Want to eliminate gay marriage? “You can’t legislate morality.”
Want to stop children being castrated? “You can’t legislate morality.”
Want to stop the dissemination of pornography? “You can’t legislate morality.”
But simply repeating something ad nauseam doesn’t make it true.
The reality is that law really does “legislate morality.”
The very idea that morality is separable from external society—from the norms and standards of everyone else around you—betrays a liberal individualism that is completely out of touch with reality. Human beings do not develop their moral bearings in isolation. Only the most antisocial personalities and the mentally ill are capable of bootstrapping a novel and idiosyncratic morality apart from what everyone around them believes.
The overwhelming majority of people acquire their moral senses from those around them, especially those in authority over them. Parents, teachers, peers, media, and yes, even government instill moral principles upon them. The Bible commands Christian parents to do this very thing (Pr. 22:6, Eph. 6:4). Naturally, it isn’t as simple as giving a child a set of rules and downloading them into their brain. The human heart does not work this way. However, the moral training parents give their children does become internalized over time. Children really do believe what their parents tell them is right and wrong, and though some can and do rebel against it, the majority will more or less follow what they have been taught. Outward conformity to external rules usually becomes internalized over time.
Rules don’t change a person’s heart directly and on their own, but they absolutely do train you before you are even able to understand why those rules are given. When I tell my young child not to touch the hot stove, he doesn’t understand the reason why he has been given this command. All he knows is that his father told him something and he must obey. Only when he matures will he understand the reason he was given this command is because I love him and do not want him to harm himself. That is how the exercise of authority brings about moral formation. Whether that authority is father over son or king over subject is immaterial.
Pt. 1