Legislating 'Morally'

I’ve a serious issue with legislation being made on ‘moral grounds’. Even as a socialist I had a basic enough understanding of law and how it affects society (my understanding is still elementary), that I discounted the moral principle. More so because if it wasn’t abstracted into absolutes, (i.e. the universal, thou shalt not kill, thou shall not steal etc…) there was a genuine risk of someone’s morals being imposed over the rest.

I don’t mean strictly speaking religious sensitivities in the extreme, as one would suppose in Islam with Sharia Law, but also the ideology which I subscribe to, Catholicism. We believe abortion is wrong, I do too, we call for it to be restricted or outright banned, I don’t. The thing is whilst I don’t have issues arguing the point I cannot bring myself to overstretch into directly limiting another person’s life. The same goes for homosexual marriage.

Yesterday 13th of January, France saw 500,000 people demonstrate against the concept of same sex marriage. And whilst I can understand the sentiment, and the sound ‘religious’ grounds on which it is based, I cannot condone this action. (I am well aware this leaves me at odds with not only a great part of the Roman Curia, but its higher doctrine as ratified by the last two popes).

Demonstration in Paris- Photo from EFE

However the issue is not one of belief. It is one of civil liberties, an aspect which cannot be covered by religion, or at least gels badly with it. (An utter paradox, though understandable, ironically Christianity is one of the very few religions to set itself apart from temporal power from the very beginning). Not a simple matter by all means, but one which needs to be addressed constantly, and protected, if we are to remain not just faithful to our religious principles, but to something much higher, namely democracy and the rule of law.