It's not regulation to say something is illegal or not marriage. How is government any bigger due to criminalized drugs and homosexual marriages not being legal? By your reasoning are all laws for big government? So should all who support limited government also support anarchy and a lawless society? We have laws because of morality, so should murder and rape be legal to shrink government influence?
Actually, regulation would be going in and changing the laws to force the government to allow homosexuals to have marital status.
Laws don't stop gays from having gay relationships, they just don't recognize it as marriage. Drugs are harmful and dangerous substances and there are wise reasons for their criminal status. I don't want to de-rail this thread, but moral legislation is not about giving government control, it's about ethics and not recognizing what many believe to be immoral as moral.
Okay. Digsbe, you and I are generally on a similar wavelength, since (unless I've misread you) we're both theologically conservative Christians. But, I have a different perspective on the drug legalization issue, and I'd like to explore a few concepts here.
The War on Drugs: this has been an expensive "War", it shows no sign of ever ending, and it has been an abject failure. I would know; as a former LEO I was a footsoldier on the front lines and I can tell you we will never
enforce drug abuse out of existence.
Furthermore the WoD has been used as an excuse and a means to dramatic expand police powers, police presence, police militarization and at least arguably infringements on various Constitutional rights, namely against unreasonable search and seizure, and asset forfeiture before conviction.
Moral vs Legal; law and morality. I agree with you that all law is, ultimately, based on morality. Murder is illegal because we believe it is wrong; that is the very definition of moral values because it is a judgement of rightness or wrongness.
Yet, not everything that is legal is moral; nor is everything that is moral, legal. Nor is everything that is legal, wise to do. In other words, there is not and never has been a 1 for 1 congruence between morality and law... and I expect there never will be. Part of the reason being a lack of consensus on morality.
--- Now, hold the phone a minute. You probably believe there are moral absolutes, based on the commandments of God in the Bible... you know what, so do I.
The problem, often pointed out by non-Christians, is that those of us who claim His name, have some trouble agreeing on a good bit of what is moral commandment and what isn't, even within our own ranks.
For instance, I don't work or do business on Sunday, except in cases of emergency. I have a sister who is very devout who sees no problem with going out to lunch at a restaurant after church; in fact her whole church goes out together, including the preacher. There are other people on the other extreme who would tell me that even in an emergency I should not buy, sell or work on Sunday. Others say that since Saturday was the "original Sabbath" that we should keep Saturday and not Sunday.
--- The folks holding these viewpoints all proclaim themselves Christian, and all seem to be sincere and honest in the position they take.
Who is right? If we're making morality into law, whose position do we make into
law?
If we did, how far do we take that, BTW? Do you get a fine, or do we go OT and stone violators?
My point in all that was morality and legality are never fully congruent, because it depends on one's perspective. If the 7th Day Adventists ruled the country and forced me to keep Sabbath law from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, that would be
moral to them but an
infringement on my conscience to me. See my point?
A lot of things are legal that many think are morally wrong: abortion, alcohol, various forms of gambling, etc.
Some things are illegal that should not be.
Back to the drug thing...
Are there any verses in the Bible that
explicitly forbid the use of drugs? I don't know of any offhand. There are cautions about wine and strong drink, and harsh condemnation of being a drunkard (a habitual drunk, and alcoholic), which could be interpreted to apply to all things intoxicating. There's "the body is a temple" thing too, but that one has been stretched several miles beyond its original context already.
I know a guy who claims to be a Christian, and seems to be pretty devout, who thinks there is nothing wrong with smoking weed and who does so regularly. I don't agree with him but if imbibing alcohol
in moderation is okay then I don't have much scriptural firepower to bash him with. Having been an ex-cop I don't think weed is any worse than booze, if it is even
as bad. The difference is in legality, and that is only
mala prohibitum and a circular argument.
I don't drink or do drugs of any kind myself... well unless you count caffine and nicotine...which some people do, oops. :mrgreen:
Now I'm finally meandering around to my point here...
There isn't much argument that murder is immoral, so hardly anybody has a problem with it being illegal.
There are people who would like to see Prohibition (on booze) tried again, including some of my fellow Baptists. There isn't much support for the idea though, even among Christians, and the first time we tried Prohibition it didn't work worth a darn... backfired, even.
See, even if you think people are better off not to drink alcohol, it would appear that banning booze just makes the problem worse and adds other problems too (see Al Capone).
Many of the same arguments apply to drug legalization.
There is a difference between banning something that is widely deemed to be morally evil,
mala in se , like murder... and banning something that lacks a similar widespread moral concern, like weed.
I'd like to close with a quote from C.S. Lewis, that highly reputable author of the
Narnia books and many works in Christian apologetics:
C.S. Lewis said:
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."