Legislating Morality

I signed up to take a free online course through BYU called The Citizen's Guide to American Politics. It has some great links in the lessons. One I particularly enjoyed is on ThisNation.com answering the question: Do laws that legislate morality violate the separation of church and state? I love the answer that is given here.

A standard dictionary definition sheds some light on these questions. The Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary defines "morality" as: "conduct or attitude judged from a moral standpoint." The word "moral" is, in turn, defined as something "concerned with right and wrong and the distinctions between them." Are laws capable of addressing issues of "right and wrong" in a socially, culturally and religiously diverse society? Clearly they do. Murder, child abuse, robbery, assault and other crimes against persons and property are widely regarded by society as "wrong." There are laws not only in this country but in virtually every country in the world that declare such actions illegal. Punishments, ranging from fines to incarceration to execution, are also attached to such provisions. Such laws are clear and authoritative statements of societal morals. They establish a clear boundary between individual rights and interests and the rights and interests of others in society, both individually and collectively.

When society deems something to be "wrong," it has cast a moral judgment. The political judgment that must then be made is whether such a judgment ought to become a matter of law. It is impossible, however, to create laws that have no moral dimension to them. The very act of coming together as a political society to establish rules of cooperation and societal order is based on fundamentally moral choices and preferences. Legislating morality is unavoidable.

Many people believe that the First Amendment requires a clear "separation of church and state" that prohibits religiously motivated laws. However, the First Amendment makes no mention of such a separation. In fact, it prohibits laws that circumscribe an individual's "free exercise" of his or her religion. The Constitution also forbids "religious oaths" for office holders. Those who are elected to make decisions in the Congress are free to bring with them whatever beliefs they may hold, be they religious, irreligious, secular, ideological or political. The law cannot touch an individual's mind or beliefs. Indeed, Thomas Jefferson, who coined the phrase "wall of separation" between church and state, declared:

The proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right.

Morals and religion are inextricably connected to the law in the United States of America. Every individual has the inalienable right to pursue happiness as he or she sees fit and to bring his or her most fundamental beliefs and opinions into the marketplace of ideas. There will never be complete consensus on even the most simple of public policies. The American system, however, guarantees each citizen--religiously inclined or otherwise--the chance to be a part of shaping them.