Time and again I’ve heard the expression, “You can’t legislate morality” and wondered whether those touting this line have thought through what they were saying. We do not “legislate” morality, but we must legislate behavior. Anyone in authority over others not only has the right, but the obligation to do so. From national governments all the way down to our own personal groups of friends, we have codes, written and unwritten, by which we demand others abide. Any law of necessity results from some agreed upon moral code, a mutual concept of right and wrong. God Himself authorized the existence of national governments to keep order: Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. Romans 13:1-2
The divine role of government as noted in the verses following the above quote is to cause “those who do evil” to fear, and to praise those who “do what is good.” We expect them, in fact demand them to take action when a wrong has been done. We even demand that parents restrain the actions of their children. Have we not agreed that it is right to hold parents responsible when their underage children do harm to others or their property? No matter how you cut it, such “laws” are an enforcement of a moral code. The real question is not whether we expect ourselves and others to live within a specified set of behaviors governed by a moral code. The question is, “Whose moral code will we use?” God has provided the world a flawless moral code in the Bible. The United States of America was founded on this code and flourished under it for 186 years until the supreme court in 1962 considered the idea of separation of church and state to mean that God will be kicked out of everything the federal government gets into. Perhaps this is at least a part of the reason why we are now being pressed to accept foreign, Islamic Sharia law as authoritative in our own land. The 3,000 year-old question seems pertinent here, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” , Psalm 11:3.