Should we legislate morality?
Believe it or not, there are some people in this country that probably think they should have the right to own a slave. But since we prohibit slavery, we impose our morality on those that think they should have the right to own a slave. Morality is about right and wrong, and that’s what laws put into legal form. Can you think of one law which doesn't declare one behavior right and its opposite wrong? The truth is all laws legislate morality. It seems the only relevant question to ask is: “Whose morality should be legislated?"
The problem today is the assumed correlation between religion and morality. We shouldn't legislate religion; however, if there isn't a moral reason for passing a law, then you have an unjust law. Frank Turek explains the differences this way:
“There’s a big difference between religion and morality: for purposes of legislation, religion involves our duty to God while morality is concerned with our duty to one another. Laws against murder, child abuse, rape and theft are moral (not just religious) issues, because they are needed to restrain evil and protect the innocent. We can and should avoid legislating religion, but we can’t avoid legislating morality — that’s what laws inevitably do! We don’t want to make a law to tell people how to worship, where to worship, or if to worship; that would be legislating religion. But we can’t avoid making laws that tell people how we should treat one another; that’s legislating morality. In short, legislating religion is unconstitutional, but legislating morality is unavoidable--everybody is trying to legislate morality. It’s widely believed the “religious right” (pro-life) are the ones who want to cram morals down the throats of everyone else, while the “pro-choice” (pro-abortion) folks are the reasonable ones who don’t want to impose on anyone. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, both sides in the abortion debate are actively seeking to impose moral standards on others.
Everyone realizes what pro-life people want to impose: they want to protect the baby and, thus, impose on the mother the duty to carry her baby to term. But what is so often missed in this debate is that pro-abortion activists want to impose their morals on others as well: they want to impose the morals of the mother on the baby and, in some cases, the father. When abortion is chosen, the morals imposed on the baby come in the form of a knife, vacuum, or scalding chemical. Such a “choice” also imposes on the father by depriving him of fatherhood and the right to protect his own baby.
In short, while the pro-life side wants to impose continued pregnancy on the mother, the pro-abortion side wants to impose death on the baby. That’s right — even liberals want to legislate and impose morality on others! So once again, the only question is: “Whose morality should be legislated?”
Turek goes on to answer the question:
"The answer is very simple. We shouldn’t impose my morality or your morality; we should impose our morality — the one inherited by us all. So when someone protests “Don’t cram your morals down my throat!” — after pointing out that their position actually does that — simply respond by saying, “These are not my morals, I did not make them up. I didn’t make up the fact that abortion is wrong, that murder is wrong, that stealing is wrong. In fact, if it were up to me, I might like it if some of those things were not morally wrong. Abortion might help me get out of trouble, and theft could solve my money problems. So I’m not imposing my “personal” morality on you any more than a math teacher is imposing her “personal” math when she teaches her students that 2+2=4. Morality like math is not based on subjective feelings; it is based on objective facts.”
If they say, “Well, that’s just your interpretation!” Respond this way, “Of course, but that doesn’t mean my interpretation is false. I also interpret that Mother Teresa was better than Hitler, and that interpretation is certainly true. Second, your position is also an interpretation. For example, when you say that the unborn are not human beings so abortion is okay, you are indeed making an interpretation. Why should your interpretation be the law of the land? Why should your interpretation go unchallenged? The question is not about who is interpreting; the question is: “Whose interpretation and conclusion best fits the facts?” While many in our society may want to suppress the medical facts which affirm the humanity of unborn children, those facts compel the conclusion that the morality which should be legislated is the pro-life morality."
"The answer is very simple. We shouldn’t impose my morality or your morality; we should impose our morality — the one inherited by us all. So when someone protests “Don’t cram your morals down my throat!” — after pointing out that their position actually does that — simply respond by saying, “These are not my morals, I did not make them up. I didn’t make up the fact that abortion is wrong, that murder is wrong, that stealing is wrong. In fact, if it were up to me, I might like it if some of those things were not morally wrong. Abortion might help me get out of trouble, and theft could solve my money problems. So I’m not imposing my “personal” morality on you any more than a math teacher is imposing her “personal” math when she teaches her students that 2+2=4. Morality like math is not based on subjective feelings; it is based on objective facts.”
If they say, “Well, that’s just your interpretation!” Respond this way, “Of course, but that doesn’t mean my interpretation is false. I also interpret that Mother Teresa was better than Hitler, and that interpretation is certainly true. Second, your position is also an interpretation. For example, when you say that the unborn are not human beings so abortion is okay, you are indeed making an interpretation. Why should your interpretation be the law of the land? Why should your interpretation go unchallenged? The question is not about who is interpreting; the question is: “Whose interpretation and conclusion best fits the facts?” While many in our society may want to suppress the medical facts which affirm the humanity of unborn children, those facts compel the conclusion that the morality which should be legislated is the pro-life morality."