Morality (What I'm Reading)

I've recently been sifting through the pages of a rather interesting book on politics (thanks to one of my roommates who will go unnamed). Although it is a politically oriented book, its very interesting to someone like me who isn't the most politically oriented person. I typically spend most of my reading time reading Christian books (go figure), "Legislating Morality" by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek has been a welcomed change of pace. The authors argue that morality has to be legislated. In fact, it would be irrational or impossible to not legislate morality, even though there is a preconceived notion in this country that you can't legislate morality (later chapters deal with whose morality should be legislated).

The United States was founded on the principles of the Moral Law. You may think that this is a Christian thing, but its more of a human, commons sense sort of law. Let me explain with some quotes thoughts from the book.

"Do you remember how you felt the last time you were wronged--the last time someone took advantage of you and, for their own selfish gain, profited at your expense? Certainly that feeling of being treated unfairly came to you immediately. You knew intuitively that the other person was wrong, and any impartial observer--even a child-- would have agreed with you. You had an undeniable right to be upset, seek justice, and demand restitution from the guilty party".

The Founding Fathers understood this. People have no trouble distinguishing what is fair and what is unfair. A sense of injustice comes to us all quite naturally, particularly after someone wrongs us. In fact, you'll find this in the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident..." This same injustice came naturally to the Founding Fathers (I'm from Chile, but I have to admit these guys were pretty good). Let me finish that quote.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Anyways, this book is filled with all sorts of thoughts, history, and some jokes (for the politically savvy). I'll try and post some exerts from it and let me know what you think. Some great evangelism tools are present in the book although it is not a book on evangelism. I'll end with two quotes.

"...while the First Amendment clearly forbids the federal government from establishing a national religion, it does not prohibit the government from establishing a national morality. In fact, the First Amendment itself is a law that helps establish a national morality: it clearly implies that it is wrong for Congress to establish a religion or to prohibit the free exercise of religion; it also implies that any congressional attempt to abridge freedom of speech, the press, or assembly is morally wrong. The Founding Fathers obviously were convinced that it wold be for Congress to restrict these freedoms. In other words they believed these freedoms were morally right and needed to be protected through legislation."

and

"...we legislated and thus imposed one set of values on everyone in society, in order to protect the "unalienable Rights" of one segment of society. According to the Declaration of Independence, that is exactly what government is designed to do: "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men" "... "The issues gripping our country today--rights of the unborn, women's rights, gay rights, minority rights, religious rights--have people on all sides trying to legislate their particular morality."