Law and Morality

Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? asked Jesus.  In other words, is it permitted to do “goodness” or “rightness?”  Jesus’ question ignites the debate about law and morality.

From the Latin moralitas, “manner, character, proper behavior,” morality is the differentiation of intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are proper and those that are improper.  Morality may also be specifically synonymous with “goodness” or “rightness.”

Because every law springs from a system of values and beliefs, every law is an instance of legislating morality.  Further, because a nation’s laws always exercise a teaching influence, law inescapably exerts a shaping effect over the beliefs, character, and actions of the nation’s citizens, whether for good or ill.  Those who seek to separate morality from law, therefore, are in pursuit both of the impossible and the destructive.  The question before us is never whether or not to legislate morality, but which moral system ought to be made legally binding.  Jesus Christ is the only One that brings us a moral system that should be legally binding.

Just because it is legal does not mean it is moral.  Constant or determined repetition of an error does not make it true.  Errors are errors regardless of their prevalence or the persistence of those who advance them.