I believe government should have absolutely no role in enforcing the morality of its citizens. I believe government has a responsibility to protect citizens and their property from harm by others, and that is all. Now most moral codes also believe in protecting people from harm, so there is therefore overlap between the two (murder is reasonably both immoral and illegal); but morality generally goes far beyond the issue of harm, and I do not believe government should follow it.

How can I say that as a Christian? Because I think Romans 7 makes very clear that “laws” are ineffective means of establishing morality – that at best, telling people “don’t do this” is a great was to make them want to do it! As the Bible says:

Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 8But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.

Romans 7:7-8

I believe that the one of the fundamentals of the Christian message is that human beings are imperfect “sinners”, who are inherently unable to gain control over all of their passions unless they establish a relationship with God. Sure, if we can pick one or two isolated flaws we can often stomp them down and keep them under control; but the result always brings out some other weakness (for instance, being judgmental and uncompassionate to others who have not achieved victory over the same flaw). Of course there are those who don’t even try to be moral, and it is easy to look down on them; but that is like looking down from the top of an anthill at the base of a mountain. Yes, you may be a bit higher than the ground; but in the big picture it doesn’t matter.

My understanding of Christianity says that true victory only come from getting into a relationship with God where he is able to work in our lives in his power (not just using our own strength to be good). Even then we tend to be reluctant to yield to him and therefore it takes time for God to finish his work (often a lifetime). The important thing is that it is not the responsibility of Christians to try to get people to be moral – that is God’s job and his alone. The responsibility of Christians is to introduce people to God, and then let God do his work in their lives.

On this basis, legislating morality is bad policy because in the end it will not work. Prohibition and the exiting laws against prostitution in most communities are ample demonstration of that. Making a law against something which is desired by human nature merely drives it underground (which may in fact be some people’s real agenda – more on that in a moment).

But it is worse than that. There is a lot of money and energy which is being invested in these various causes. That is money and energy which is not being invested in the cause of introducing people to God. This whole process then serves as a distraction from the real mission which has been given to Christians. I can only think that “the enemy of our souls” is quite happy to see numerous Christians spending so much time on ventures which are guaranteed to be ineffective at making real changes in people’s lives and not spending that time sharing the love of God, which is the only thing which can really help them.

So why is this approach so seductive to so many Christians? I am sure there are many reasons; but here’s one to consider - it is a way to sweep other people’s needs under the carpet so we don’t have to face our own failure to reach people with the real message of Christ. Sharing the Christian faith with someone is hard. It requires a willingness to be open and vulnerable. Few Christians have allowed God to transform them to the point that they are willing to do that. Seeing other people around us entrapped in their weaknesses reminds us of how many people need to be reached and how little we are doing. Now for some people that drives them to accept God’s changes in their lives so they will reach out; but for others it drives them to want to not see the need of others. Making certain activities illegal is a good way to drive them underground so we don’t have to face them as we go about our lives. Nothing has really changed for the people entangled by these activities; but at least we don’t need to see it any more.