Legislating Morality And Proposition 8

Legislating Morality

Yesterday I had a more lengthy post up about legislating morality that I have taken down and revised into half of today's post. The gist of it was this:

1) Legislating morality does not change what is in people's hearts.

2) We should not make our country's laws based only on moral/religious grounds -- there should be a secular reason behind it. Note that does not mean that we should fail to make laws because they have a moral/religious aspect to them (for example, one of the ten commandments is "don't murder").

It is difficult for me to say this sometimes, but in the end I must acknowledge the following:

- We do not live in a theocracy and I would have a very big problem with laws based on moral/religious grounds that didn't align with my own views (what if Christianity were outlawed?).

- Even God allows people to reject him and do evil things.

3) We as Christians are called to a higher standard than the non-Christian world in which we live, and we should not delegate the enforcement of that higher standard to the government. God is sovereign no matter what happens and there will be people set apart that He works through.

Proposition 8

Given that rant, I was going to vote an adamant "no on 8".

Then I read about a first grade school field trip to a lesbian wedding under the guise of a "teachable moment".

Then I read about "Coming Out Day" and "Gay Day" in various grade schools.

Then I read about an upcoming "Gay And Lesbian History Month" in one grade school.

Then I changed my mind.

My now adamant vote of "yes on 8" has nothing to do with whether gay couples can get a piece of paper from the state that says they are married or not, nor does it have anything to do with what words are in the California constitution.

It has everything to do with using children and taxpayer money to push an agenda and flaunt a victory in the face of the opposition, at the expense of something that provides actual educational value.

I'll even throw this into a video game analogy (scary): I can't stand the Grand Theft Auto video games. I couldn't stand them before I was a Christian. I think they're stupid. I also think that the company who makes them has every right to make them, and that the people who buy them have every right to buy them. However, if my kids' schools gave them a demo of those games, advertised them heavily for a day, and glorified the dodgy characters in them for a month, I'd have a big problem with that. The idealistic rights the company has to make it just got trumped by others stomping on my rights as a parent.

Ideal or not, I'll selfishly do what's in my best interest and look out for my own rights first.