Something I have always struggled with was when I hear a religious person claim that something immoral to them should be illegal. The argument is that if you legalize something, you’re sanctioning it. This mentality has been used with drugs, abortion, same sex marriage, and so on. One thing I’ve always heard preached within the church is to be Christ-like. Now lets bring these two ideas together.
Jesus Christ was said to let free will happen. He did not interfere with someone’s choice to sin.
Why does this make a difference?
Think about this for a second. A man stops working to volunteer for the community. He does everything he can to make the roads and neighborhoods clean and well maintained. He doesn’t get paid. He sacrifices to help others.
Does this sound like a good man to you?
What if I forgot to mention that there was always an armed officer within fifteen feet of him? You guessed it: community service.
This makes all the difference in the world as far as the respect given to the man and the deed. Would God see him to be less because he was forced to do these deeds? I’m certain that most people in America would think less of him than if he quit his job and took on full-time volunteer work.
Now think about the idea that legalizing something is sanctioning it.
For arguments sake, lets say same sex marriage is now legal. Are the people that will be getting married to the same sex being sanctioned by the government? What if they still don’t get married? Are they stronger because it is a sin in your eyes, considered legal by your government, yet they refuse to commit to it?
There are two problems with imposing your religious morals onto someone else when the act does not affect you. First we have the First Amendment to the Constitution which guarantees Separation of Church and State. Secondly, if the book that your theology is based of says to be Godly, you must accept that you cannot force someone to follow it. God does not force you down a path of morals. God does not force you to abstain from sin. Regardless if you think someone else should do it or not, it is not your right to run their life and be their God or moral authority. If you think otherwise, I’m pretty sure you need to consult your religious literature about playing the role of God. I’m not sure of any religions that say it is acceptable to play the role of God in someone else’s life.
Freedom cannot be diluted just as you cannot bend cold glass. If you remove someone’s rights, they are not free. If you really want to glorify your God, you need to teach and not force discipline onto others. If you want someone to stay away from something you find immoral, teach them what you know. When you force your rules onto them, you are the officer with the firearm standing behind them to make sure they do their community service. There is no God in that. Only man acting like one.
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