You Can’t Legislate Morality?

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By Patrick F. Cannon

The old saying “You can’t legislate morality” may well be good advice, but it has always been widely ignored by politicians. Of course, sometimes, you just have to. There has always been a consensus that the biblical admonitions “Thou shall not kill” or “covet thy neighbors goods” are necessary laws in every reasonable society (and even unreasonable ones; I’m sure Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia had laws against murder and thievery on the books, even if the state itself was given a pass).

In this country, there have always been significant numbers of our fellow citizens who think the country should be governed on fundamentalist Christian beliefs. As their numbers diminish, and they feel under siege, their opinions only harden. The new Speaker of the House, Mr. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, is on record many times as believing that homosexual sexual relations should be against the law – not God;s law, but ours (which he believes should be one and the same). He is also on record as believing the Founding Fathers didn’t mean to protect the government from religious meddling, but religion from government meddling.

Apparently, Johnson and his like are part of what has come to be known as “Christian Nationalism.” This is our somewhat milder (so far) version of the religious fervor that has been such a boon in countries like Iran and Afghanistan; and continues to complicate public life in Israel, where religious parties make it increasingly difficult to govern.

While I think most of us understand the difference between murder and fornication, Johnson and his ilk seem worried about what folks do in the privacy of their dwellings. Since what two men or women do to each other in private has no actual effect on him personally, it can only be that his religion – in this case, the Southern Baptists – has decided it does, so it must be wrong for everyone, not just Baptists. If history teaches us anything – and it doesn’t have such a good record overall – it is that religious fervor does as much harm as good.

I am certainly not against religion in general. Belief in a God can encourage charity, tolerance and good works. But I find it amazing that it can also encourage almost the opposite. It has often occurred to me that the fundamentalists have spent too much time reading the Old Testament, and not enough listening to Christ’s message of tolerance and forgiveness in the New. After all, they call themselves Christians, do they not? Johnson is quoted as saying if you want to know what his political philosophy is, just read the Bible, but perhaps not the part that says “love your neighbor”, unless that means only neighbors who are just another version of you.

Despite what Johnson says and believes, the Founder’s intent was to keep religion out of government, so that its citizens would be free to practice any religion they chose, or no religion at all. Sure, they were mostly Christians, but they also understood the history of “official” religions. After all, many of the new Americans – the Pilgrims, the Quakers, etc, – came here to escape countries like Great Britain where citizens were required to financially support the Anglican church whether they belonged to it or not.

But I think the most interesting thing about the Christian Nationalists is that they are led by the Anti-Christ. Don’t you just love that irony?

Copyright 2023, Patrick F. Cannon

7 thoughts on “You Can’t Legislate Morality?”

  2. If only the sexual predilections of people were confined to the privacy of the bedroom! Maybe in our dreams!

    In reality, they are broadcast on television, celebrated in movies, taught in elementary schools to six year olds, published in the left’s version of the McGuffey readers, enshrined in Democrat identity politics and encoded as fundamental rights in the laws of the land. In our relativistic, anything-goes-if-you-like-it culture, they have actually become a New Morality to the extent that performances of drag queens in kindergartens are a component of childhood pedagogy. Curiously, we never see drag queens performing in nursing homes. What would be the point?

    (It doesn’t necessarily inform my personal beliefs, but for the record, the New Testament has plenty of references to homosexuality as a violation of nature, and Jesus speaks of marriage only in a heterosexual context. I’ve often been amused by the sentimental depiction of Christ as a kind, tolerant figure, whereas most of the time he was harshly critical of the behavior of his contemporaries [Pasolini’s “Gospel According to Saint Matthew” provides a more realistic, less sappy portrait.])

    Leave it to the NYT (“It was the worst of times, it was the New York Times”) to fabricate a new bete noir, the Christian Nationalist, that threatens our so-called fragile democracy, demonizing anyone who dares to question the values of the crypto-Marxist radical left. Pure fantasy. To the best of our knowledge, no one, let alone the Speaker of the House, has proposed any legislation that would institute a national religion. Heck, the Constitution plainly says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. So where is the urgency for the hysterical eager beavers at the NYT to get their shorts in a knot?

    The Constitution also bars Congress from prohibiting the free exercise of religion (and we are talking about specific, sectarian religions, not some vague concept of religiosity). Not only that, Congress is expressly prevented from abridging the right to speak and write freely about it. So what indeed is the problem for someone like Rep. Mike Johnson, or anyone for that matter, with saying publicly what he personally believes? What business is it of ours? It’s perfectly legal and proper. If it’s respectable to bugger someone’s rectum and teach it in school, the devil take the hindmost, it’s surely okay to articulate religious beliefs, no? Or is it?

    Our democracy is fragile. It is ready to shatter into tiny shards and embed itself in the carpet. The Upper West Side nannies at the NYT clutch their pearls and fret about the harm that words and thoughts can perpetrate. David Brooks is about to faint. Get Peggy Noonan some aspirin! And think about the hurt the historically underprivileged, disenfranchised, and oppressed masses suffer as a result! We can’t let that happen. Not in our democracy.

    And what about those Jews? Aren’t they religious? Just look at the havoc they’ve wreaked on the unjustly downtrodden Palestinians.

    Can’t legislate morality? Our entire body of laws is based on morality. The problem is, we hardly know what morality is anymore. And we can make laws to do whatever we want.

    In Luca Signorelli’s fresco In the Duomo of Orvieto, “Sermon and Deeds of the AntiChrist,” there’s a stunning image of a demon whispering falsehoods into the ear of a preacher whose features closely resemble Christ’s. Gifts are piled up below the preacher’s feet. Around them are scenes of corruption and mayhem. An assassin finishes off a victim, a prostitute receives payment and black-clad soldiers patrol the temple.

    It’s a great depiction of modern governance. And isn’t that pious Joe Biden preaching the words of discord and strife that are fed into his ear as Chinese bribes pile into his bank account? No irony there!

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  3. The new speaker is on record as saying the Bible is his guide; as far as I know, he doesn’t mention that bugaboo of both sides of the divide, the Constitution. Everyone is always trying to find ways around that pesky document — both Biden and Trump have been guilty. A pox on all their houses.

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    1. I would be far more comfortable with a speaker who was guided and sworn into office by the Bible than on Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals,” Karl Marx, Dr Seuss, a Superman comic book or the latest political gospel from Harvard or Yale. But that’s just me!

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      2. I see Elmer Fudd taking his oath of office, “Oy solumwy sweaw to faithfuwy execute the office of Pwesident…..to presewve and pwotect …etc.” I think even Obama and Biden swore biblically (Fooled them, haha). Not sure what in the Bible bugs you doc, but a few presidents took their oath of office on other texts (John Adams, Teddy Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, maybe others). Since most of them had their fingers crossed, it hardly mattered. A stack of dollar bills would suffice for some.

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