SHOULD GOVERNMENTS LEGISTATE MORALITY?

 

Every law springs from a system of values and beliefs. In other words, every law is an instance of legislating morality. As a matter of fact, because a nation’s laws have teaching influence, law inescapably exerts a shaping effect over the beliefs, character, and actions of the nation’s citizens.

In his article, “Law and Morality” (Christian Research Journal - Volume 21, Number 3) Michael Baunam contends that “those who seek to separate morality from law are in pursuit both of the impossible and the destructive.”

That pursuit appears to be evident with the conversation on the Buggery Law in Jamaica. Some years ago, one newspaper headlined an article, “Buggery Splits Church...”. Both the Jamaica Evangelical Alliance and the Jamaica Council of Churches have been drawn into the conversation. That became necessary because two key leaders from both church bodies have made statements that seem to challenge government’s right to legislate an area of morality.

Does a government really have the right to legislate morality? All laws, regardless of their content or their intent, arise from a system of values, from a belief that some things are right and others wrong, that some things are good and others bad, that some things are better and others worse. For better or worse, every piece of legislation touches directly or indirectly on moral issues, or is based on moral judgments and evaluations concerning what it is we want or believe ought to be, what it is we want or believe we ought to produce and preserve.

Morality speaks of a system of behavior regarding standards of right or wrong behavior. The late Christian scholar C.S. Lewis defines morality as it relates to our behavior on three levels: (1) to ensure fair play and harmony between individuals; (2) to help make us good people to have a good society; and (3) to keep us in a good relationship with the power that created us. Based on this definition, it's clear that our beliefs are critical to our moral behavior.

However, moral behavior presupposes a standard by which that behavior is determined. C.S. Lewis believes that standard was set by our Creator. An historical overview of Jamaica’s buggery law would seem to suggest the same.

The British Buggery Act of 1533, from which Jamaica’s law immerged, was an Act of Parliament that was passed during the reign of Henry VIII. It was England’s first civil sodomy law. Prior to enacting this law, such offenses were dealt with by the ecclesiastical or church courts. The 1533 Act defined buggery as “an unnatural sexual act against the will of God and man.”

Jamaica’s “Offenses Against the Person Act” refers to buggery as “anal sex between a man and another man, a woman or an animal”. Contrary to popular belief, the Act is against ‘homosexual acts’ and not against homosexuality, which is sexual attraction to people of one’s own sex or gender. In other words, the Jamaican Act legislates against behavior, not attraction.

Consider the nature of civil law. Through the threat of force, these laws constrain or require actions. Such laws are not akin to scientific laws which describe the patterns found in nature. Civil laws prescribe behaviors. Some moral standard or moral vision lies behind all civil laws. They do not appear out of nothing, and they are not morally neutral.

Civil law will not make anyone good. Moral character cannot be legislated. But laws that are just make people less likely to do what is bad for society. And governments have an obligation to do what is right or good for society.

One of the central purposes of the government is to enforce the law. The government remains the prime custodian of people's values. Ethics and moral values have a great influence on the operation of the society. It is therefore true that the government exercises control over the society. This is true considering the task of enforcing laws.

Governments enforce civil laws against paedophilia, paraphilia and other deviant forms of sexual activity. When governments fail to enforce such just laws, citizens resort to their own system of justice. Such failure on the part of governments produce vigilante groups.

The Bible encourages us to pray for governments. Governments must protect citizens from evil and promote good, and we are even instructed to pay taxes for those purposes (Romans 13:4). Paul further contends in one of his letters to Timothy, that we pray for governments, “… so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour…” (1 Timothy 2:1-3).