Legislating Morality

If you are one of the majority of people who do not smoke, then you probably have no problem with the laws popping up all over the place making it illegal to light up in public places. You should. That does not mean that it is bad that smoking is on the decline, or even that restaurants should be free smoking zones. The way things are going, more and more public places will be smoke free anyway in the future as people quit smoking. The problem is the way that governments have decided that freedom and liberty is not something to treasure or protect.

Smoking is just one example of many. Forget for a moment the local governments that are trying to force people to: eat healthy, drive with both hands on the wheel, wear certain clothing, and sort their trash in certain ways. The scary trend is the ways that governments have decided to start chipping away at treasured freedoms like free speech. Using terminology like “hate speech,” some countries like Canada have made it illegal to speak in favor of things like traditional marriage. There, a Catholic minister has had his right to free speech removed for life and has had to pay a huge payout to a man who was offended when the minister spoke in favor of marriage between one man and one woman. And the offended man is not even gay, he was just offended!

The logic of the people who are destroying these freedoms is flawed as well. Barack Obama has set up his position in such a way that to disagree with him on ideas is equivalent to racism. In the same way, people who attempt to have a dialogue in the realm of ideas regarding homosexuality, religion, or legislation are not merely of another opinion; they are engaging in hate.