Can you legislate morality?

A little over a week ago, the senate voted on a Constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriages from taking place in the United States. They voted against the amendment and I confess I felt relief. I have struggled with this issue for a long time for two primary reasons. The first is that I believe homosexuality to be a sin, one of many sexual sins the Bible speaks out against and that followers of the word should abstain from. Like many sins, it is widely accepted in our culture; it is a part of our landscape. I know the law I live under, a law of grace and mercy that yields a process of sanctification. With that sanctification comes abstinence from certain things, sins if you will, which would include something like homosexuality. But what about the person who does not know grace? Can they be expected to follow the same code, especially if it is imposed on them by politicians who are often hypocrites? No, they cannot.

The second issue is a question I have considered for some time now: Can you legislate morality? What is the role of government and law-makers? Laws should be written in the best interest of the public, the voters, the people who give the law-makers power. Laws should reflect the voice of the people and the people are coming from a lot of different places. Different races, religions, and opinions permeate the population which would yield a variety of moral codes and obligations. Could it be possible for lawmakers to standardize this for so many different people? I would argue not. This is why there will always be drug dealers or prostitutes (among other reasons). There will always be the black and white issues like murder or tax fraud or any number of clear-cut ethical and legal issues in this country but what about the grey? Take abortion, for instance. What happens will a girl is raped by her father and becomes pregnant? Or euthanasia? It’s not just life issues mingling in the grey but also wire-tapping and surveillance, bills like the Patriot Act that get grossly misused and demand debate yet with no clear answer. There are all kinds of grey areas that no resolute decisions could ever be made about. And Christians should be no strangers to this; predestination anyone?

This brings me back to the issue of gay marriage. Immorality is something I see through the lens of my faith but something I see for what it is, sin. I do believe, though, that all people are children of God and should be treated that way regardless of whether or not they live in immorality. “You without sin cast the first stone,” was such a powerful and loaded statement with personal, social, and legal implications. Jesus trumped the law, but he did it through personal conviction, through example. If gay marriage were legal, I would imagine a modern parallel would be showing homosexuals kindness and love, allowing them to find faith and repent through their own process of sanctification rather than trying to legally impose upon them. I would argue that the Christian response is one that occurs despite the law rather than through the law.

Christianity was never intended to have the government’s protection but was designed, rather, to be a counter culture operating in the face of the government’s opposition. Christians should still abide in morality no matter their government; we have grown too comfortable with our protection and need to learn to quit taking it for granted. The faithful in countries like China, Sudan, or in the Middle East are a great example of this, living joyfully in the face of life-threatening persecution. Homosexuals who became Christians are to pursue sanctification just as anyone else but those who do not cannot be expected to live under its standards. The government should not be depended upon to maintain our Christian morality but should reflect its people in the spirit of democracy, a spirit we are losing in our greed driven culture and should be fighting to maintain. We are a country of conservatives and liberals, faithful and agnostics, homosexuals and so on; it is not the government’s job to protect the Christian morality.

I distinctly remember a phone conversation I had with my mother on the day of the last presidential election. She had called to tell me my grandfather had been diagnosed with cancer. Earlier that day, my heart had been broken as a class I was taking discussed the bi-partisan (this is not some liberal soap-box! I will never accept that some wealthy power-seeking politician, no matter their party or ideals, could ever understand the true needs of those who aren’t wealthy or powerful) short-comings in caring for the poor and broken people in our world. I haven’t the time to go into detail, but with the added news of my grandfather’s terminal state, I emotionally collapsed. Mom asked me if I was alright and I said no, that I felt completely defeated because neither of the men trying to buy their way into the most powerful position of leadership in the world cared the least for anything I thought was important. I simply cried and I realized that I could never depend on politicians, Christian or not, to stand up for the things that Christ would have. As a Christian, I had to stand myself and fight for that which is worth fighting for and I have since taken comfort in the many faithful around the world who have stood up to persecution and fought for what is right. This is my obligation as a person of faith, to stand up for what I believe in, be it an issue of morality, human rights, or the sanctity of human life - whether my government supports me or not.

Can you legislate morality? Sometimes, but I find it dark territory to be walking in as a clear answer now might not always be clear and because most answers this day in age aren’t clear anyway. In fact, I would rather the government not try and legislate the grey. The better question, I am finding, is this: Should we depend on the government to legislate our morality? Never. Walk upright on the path of sanctification if it is a path you seek, never take security for granted, and when the government and population at large threaten our ideals or show signs of persecution for the Christian morality, rejoice; that’s what Jesus said to do!

One day, I hope to marry a woman I love like no one else in this world and take on all the responsibility marriage entails. How can I tell a couple of the same sex who feels the same way that they cannot enjoy the same benefits of marriage that I hope to? How can I tell someone like Curtis, an old and loved family friend, that he and his partner of 25 years don’t truly love each other? Instead I must pray people like Curtis find the same love and grace in Christ that I have and be brought into repentance and sanctification. I believe true marriage in the eyes of God to be a union between a man and a woman, but many marriages have no respect for its sanctity as it is. Marriage is a joke to many people in society and to acuse homosexuals of ruining the sanctity of marriage is to turn a blind eye to generations prior.

I also find it important to say that when Christians with a platform, espcially politicians and religious leaders, openly fight and criticize gay rights, they are not showing love but rather demeaning these people into a place where Christ's love is mis-represented and therefor unappealing to people who desperately need it. Openly fighting a word and media war against a large and vocal part of our society is not an action of love and not what we are called to. There are better methods of loving homosexuals than fighting them with Constitutional amendments and I consider it time for Christians to quit relying on a corrupt government to protect us rather than faith in God to get us through the changing times. Christ is far more capable than the Senate and I will trust Him to abide in marriage over a hundred men and women of power and their laws any day.