Legislating Morality

The dangers of legislating morality shouldn't have to be spelled out. Consider Sharia Law. Read The Handmaid's Tale. Do your homework... this sort of thing never leads anywhere good.

What sort of thing? This sort of thing. A proposed South Carolina law that would allow a jilted spouse to sue the other's lover. Maybe this doesn't seem like a big deal to everyone, but it raises all sorts of alarms with me. Let me be very clear; I have never cheated on anyone. Ever. I don't intend to. Ever. That said, there is no way you can convince me that my marriage should imply any legal contract between my spouse and anyone other than myself. No one has any legal obligation to respect or even recognize the contract of fidelity, if such an implied contract is even part of the marriage. To say that you can sue the person who slept with your spouse is to say that the person who slept with your spouse, as a member of society, was responsible for preserving your marriage and failed in that legal obligation, and that is patently ridiculous and inherently dangerous. Society is not responsible for the preservation of any marriage. As soon as we allow that society has a legal stake in our marriages, we allow our marriages to be legally defined and controlled by society. Your marriage is no longer a contract of partnership between you and your spouse, but a contract between you, your spouse, and the government. You are, almost literally, inviting the government into your bedroom, to ensure that the marriage is kept pure and morally sound. This isn't hyperbole. It is the logical and inevitable destination if we follow this course of legislation.

I don't know who this guy on CNN is... yet another stupid douchebag pretending to stand up for down-home values and morality to pander to an audience too easily cowed into submission, longing for order to be imposed upon them. This is some scary shit right here, and that it is presented as a welcome development by a major news source is absolutely terrifying.