Yes We Can! (Legislate morality, that is) by Chris White

One of the popular old saws of social liberalism, libertarianism, and libertines is that “you can’t legislate morality!”.  I couldn’t disagree more.  While moral rectitude is entirely a personal choice and ultimately cannot be coerced, moral behavior can and often is.  Examples of this are not hard to find.  D.U.I.I. laws, the prohibition of child pornography, and the state department of weights and measures are simple ways we as a society punish drunkenness and encourage sobriety, state that not all human sexual expression is acceptable or free speech, and prevent businesses from profiting through cheating their customers.  This doesn’t mean we have banished evil desires in our citizenry, for the desire to cheat or be intoxicated may be very present, but such desires are slowed or stopped through legal requirements or the fear of legal consequences.  Francis Beckwith in his wonderful book Politics for Christians calls efforts to legislate morality the building of a moral ecology in a community or society.  A good moral ecology makes people thrive where a bad moral ecology causes people great misery.  There is a reason why people don’t willingly live in neighborhoods rife with crime, drugs, and prostitution and why people who can, prefer to live in neighborhoods and cities that regulate human vice and make public investments in things that uplift the human soul like parks, libraries, and culture.  One of the great historic achievements of Europe from the Puritan to the Victorian age was what was called the “reformation of manners.”  This was the great social effort that rid Europe of things like human slavery and predatory child labor, but also made it possible for poor children to get an education and relieved the misery of the slums with compassionate acts of charity.  Certainly all evil was not rooted out, but overall, the whole of society if not improved greatly was significantly less miserable than it had been.  Many involved in this movement were motivated by Christian commitments, while others were simply humanitarians, but ultimately the bulk of their improvements came as the result of legislation.  In the last century, America experimented with the Volstead Act of 1919 otherwise known as prohibition.  In popular lore, prohibition did nothing but stir up trouble forcing good honest citizens to go blind drinking their own bathtub gin and cower in fear as their cities were taken over by organized crime.  These things did happen.  But when prohibition was repealed, organized crime did not go away and people still made moonshine.  This would suggest that prohibition was not the cause of such things as much as it was an occasion for them.  What hasn’t made it into popular understanding is the reality that during the prohibition years (which actually permitted beer and wine) many of nation’s social problems that are related to alcohol consumption were either arrested or in decline.  Put another way, while it didn’t eradicate alcoholism, making it harder to be an alcoholic for those ten years did elevate the overall well-being of America.  I’m not suggesting the repeal of the Blaine Act (which repealed prohibition) but rather the recognition that legislation can improve morality and this in turn can improve society.  Although it really is the wisdom of Solomon, his words in Proverbs 14:34 seem almost patently obvious: “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”  The real misery of today is that many of our nation’s leaders seem afraid to say that there is such a thing as right and wrong, moral and immoral (unless they can tax it!).  It is time for those of us with a moral compass (and this includes more than just Christians) to speak up and say no to the emerging anarchy of amorality.  And this means voting and getting involved in moral values politics to the level of our ability.  In doing so, we will never eradicate evil or even achieve a morally upright society, but we will all be significantly less miserable than we are today.