Should We Enforce Morality?

“Your right to swing your fist stops at my jaw.” “You can do what you want as long as you do not harm others.” “Government should not enforce morality. That is the job of the churches.” And so the libertarian slogans go.

Starting from these individual rights precepts, libertarians call for legalizing recreational drugs, gambling, prostitution, homosexuality and other personal vices. This is not to say that libertarians endorse such activities, merely that they don’t think the government has a say in such matters. Legal and moral are not identical concepts in the minds of libertarians.

A strong utilitarian case can be made for taking these positions. Personal morality laws are generally ineffective and can have very unpleasant side-effects. The War on Drugs has led to higher crime, broken families, increased poverty, an erosion of the Bill of Rights, clogging of the court system, funding of international terrorism, higher taxes, and a damaged environment. Laws against prostitution have led to abuse of some women and an increased spread of deadly sexually transmitted diseases (over strictly regulated legal prostitution as is done is parts of Europe).

Alas, the libertarian arguments for repealing such laws often fall on deaf ears. Morality is important, and many people want to get the government involved in improving morality. I could point out to conservatives that this is the same reasoning that welfare statists use for wanting government involved in charity and that socialists use for wanting government involved in just about everything. Yet when I point out this similarity to many conservatives, the logic fails to compel.

I think this often has to do with religion. Pleasing the Creator is far more important than setting up an optimal government for creating a free and prosperous society. Better to pay a price for morality now than over eternity. And even in the here and now divine intervention can overrule the laws of economics and political science. These are compelling arguments and deserve answer on their own terms. I cannot do so for all religions, but I can make a case to Bible based Christians, as I am one -- while being a something close to a libertarian at the same time. My reasoning goes…

Newsflash!

We interrupt this line of reasoning to bring you the following news expose: Libertarians do actually call for enforcing morality! Despite protestations to the contrary by many Libertarian spokespeople, Libertarians are in fact notorious for generating many their positions on a moral basis. And many other actions called by Libertarians have indirect positive moral impact. For example:

Libertarians call for abolishing corporate welfare and other subsidies on the basis that taxing the general public for the benefit of special interests is theft. This is a purely moral argument!
Longtime moochers would be denied billions of dollars of subsidies for agriculture, science, energy research, space travel, foreign exports, educational television, and other worthwhile on the moral basis that forcibly taxing others to pay for such things is theft. (Most of these activities would continue on a voluntary basis were Libertarians to take power.)
Many conservatives call for allowing prayer in schools and including the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Libertarians would go much further; they call for the complete separation of school and state. If history is any indication, this would lead to most schools being affiliated with a religious organization.
While Libertarians do call for the repeal of sodomy laws (which are hardly ever enforced), they also believe in freedom of association for private citizens. Those who consider certain sexual relationships to be abominations would be free to peacefully shun practitioners of such. The Boy Scouts would be free to set their own rules on admissions, for example.
Many conservatives complain about homosexuality and the breakdown of the family, while at the same time calling for laws that send hundreds of thousands of men to crowded same-sex prisons. The Libertarian call to end the drug war would greatly reduce homosexual rape and would reunite many families.
The decline of marriage is a problem. Many libertarians call for treating marriage as a private contract instead of allowing each state to redefine the terms. This would give religious leaders a role in setting marriage contract terms (as a condition of performing ceremonies). Hopefully, our religious leaders can do a better job than our legislatures in coming up with contract terms than encourage families to stay together.
Whether abortion should be legal is a matter of contention among libertarians. But libertarians are united in calling for making it easier to adopt. This is a path to reduce the number of abortions which doesn’t need Supreme Court approval.

Yes, it is true that Libertarians would leave certain moral decisions in the hands of individuals vs. The State. On the other hand, Libertarians are quite strict in calling for The State to act morally, and for The State to get out of the way of those who are pursuing moral excellence.

In the pages that follow I will make the case that the level of government that Libertarians call for will likely lead to a much more moral society than we currently have, that active government enforcement of morality beyond issues of force and fraud generally backfires.

It is possible to be a devout Christian and be a Libertarian at the same time – despite the fact that the Libertarian Party platform would legalize some naughty behaviors. True, a devout Christian might want to amend the LP platform in a few places, such as on abortion, but that is the case for the other party platforms as well – more so in my opinion.

In this essay I will only begin to make the Christian case for fewer vice laws. Here, I look at morality in general, which is important to Christians but also to other moralists. In subsequent essays, I do a detailed study of Scripture to make the Christian case for liberty.

Next: The Cost of Morality Enforcement

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