I just happened to run against this news article on Google News today, and I thought I’d comment on it a bit. But, first, a few disclaimers — I’m going to disable comments on this post, because, for one, I hate discussing law or politics (I never bring it up), and I’m really not good at debating either one because I don’t understand them very well. I’m just putting my opinion up, is all.
Normally I wouldn’t comment at all, but the fact that they protested outside an LDS temple kind of struck me as odd. For the record, I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so it’s not hard to guess what my stance on the matter would be.
Really, though, there’s only one comment from the article I want to refute:
“I’m fed up and disgusted with religious institutions taking political stances and calling them moral when it’s nothing but politics,” said Dennis Williams, 36.
The commentor seems to think that there is a natural division between politics (philosophies of law) and morality, when the fact is, they are completely united.
Law is nothing more than a third party (government) dictating what is right and what is wrong. Morality is the reference for the laws — they reflect our moral viewpoints. You could just as easily debate whether murder is right or wrong based on the same approach. Something inside us, which the majority of people agree with, tells us that taking someone else’s life is “wrong”, so we pass a law that makes it a crime.
Similarly, if a nation is filled with Christians, expect the laws to reflect Christian points of view. If the majority thinks that gay marriage is wrong, then there will be laws to reflect that moral point of view.
Law is descriptively deciding what we as a people agree is right and wrong, okay or not okay, permitted or not. As far as I see it, its just morals applied.