I remember when someone told FPCWV president Jeremy Dys not to “legislate your morality on the rest of us.” His response has stuck with me ever since. Jeremy simply replied “Would you rather I legislate my immorality?”
The fact is, all legislation is moral in some way, shape or form. It’s impossible to pass a law or piece of legislation that is not in some way moral; and for that matter is not in some way discriminatory. Regardless of our best efforts, every law excludes someone, every law infringes on someone’s “rights,” and every law is based on some form of morality.
So the question might better be asked, “Whose morality do we want to legislate?”
Since our founding as a nation America has used clear biblical principles as the basis for our public policy and civil laws. We can clearly see biblical principles at work in our laws against murder, theft, perjury, and adultery. Whether explicitly stated or not it is evident that a biblical underpinning has created the foundation for American policy. As secular humanists, atheists, and liberals have sought to remove any mention of God from the public sector they have also removed the very foundation our society is built upon. In doing this they have opened the door to the creation of public policy that is based on cultural opinion, shifting views, and immorality.
The result of this is that as debate and conversations take place around public policy, when someone mentions anything that remotely resembles a biblical principle they are met with criticism and the demand not to legislate morality on the nation. The church in particular has been vehemently targeted by opponents that demand we cease legislating “our” morality on them.
A video at The Gospel Coalition explores this topic of whether or not Christians should try to legislate their morality on the nation. The panelists in the video rightly start with the fact that all laws are moral in some way and propagate a morality of some sort. But I was disappointed to hear that a visit to a seminary classroom by one of the panelists revealed that the students in the class – all of which are studying to be pastors – agreed that abortion should be legal. [Read more...]
About Nathan Cherry
Nathan Cherry is the chief editor and blogger for the Engage Family Minute blog, the official blog of the FPCWV. He serves also as the Regional Development Coordinator as a liaison to the pastor's of West Virginia. He is a pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-religious freedom conservative. He is also a husband, father, pastor, author, musician, and follower of Jesus Christ.
One of the biggest problems facing our culture has nothing to do with the actual biology and sexual orientation of people. As we all know, biology is formed before we are born, and sexual orientation is intricately linked to it. Rather, a major problem is the perceived biology and sexual orientation of people. As our society continues to run headlong toward some androgynous utopia it seems the number of people perceiving their sexual orientation to be frequently changing climbs.
A key component to the marriage conversation that many would like to pretend does not exist is young evangelicals; or for that matter, millennials of any age. It has been propagated more than once that opposition to legalizing same-sex “marriage” comes mostly from old, white people. And, that increasingly diverse generation of young millennials overwhelmingly embraces marriage redefinition.
