Hi everyone, I’m new to these forums, and I had a question I would greatly appreciate being answered (I hope I’m doing this right :bigyikes
I go to a Catholic school, and have come across many discussions over moral issues becoming political (abortion, gay marriage, etc.) and there are a surprising amount of people who I regard as extremely intelligent who are opposed to Catholic principles being carried out in the legal system. A couple friends and I usually break down their arguements, but there comes a point that we just can’t break through the one part in their standpoint where they state that even if they agreed with us, they would not support Catholic teachings being carried out because “it’s wrong to impose your morality on others.”
Is this true? I haven’t been able to find any reference for that, and Jesus chasing the moneychangers out of the temple comes to mind as to why they’re wrong. Could anyone clarify this for me?
There are two points that need addressing here.
The first is the idea that moral issues have become political issues. So lets define what we mean by “political issues”. When someone uses that phrase we tend to straightaway think of the political arena as played out in federal and state politics by political parties and to a certain extent that’s true. The cynical amongst us view politics as being a quest for power and a battle for votes and, also to a certain degree that is also true. However “politics” has a broader definition. It can be defined as nothing more than the free exchange of ideas amongst people and the search for what is right in all the circumstances. The famous british politician and philosopher John Stuart Mill once wrote that it is only through the clash of opinions that the truth falls to the ground and isn’t that, after all, what politics is really about? We have office politics and family politics as well as federal and state politics and in all arenas where ‘politics’ is carried out there is a search for something that binds us together. The office gossip, the taking of sides in an argument is usually all about who is right and who is wrong. The same can be said of family politics. Arguments about who is right and who is wrong, who has been wronged and why the imposition of rulings and opinions matters. Eventually some sort of balance is found and everyone is on the same page, so to speak, even when some just agree to disagree. Society is no different. Politics is about the exchange of ideas and, hopefully, can be free and frank. So when we say that moral issues are political issues we are just stating the obvious. Morals require discourse and all discourse is ‘political’ in the sense that morality can be disagreed with, altered and changed and eventually, hopefully, some form of agreement can be reached.
The second point is to define what morals are. Put simply, they are ‘rules’ for behaving, both as individuals and as mebers of society. Considering how it is pretty nigh on impossible to be not a meber of society, morals necessarily impact on us all in the public sphere as well as privately. In fact, it can be argued that private morality doesn’t even exist, but I wont venture into that discussion here! Considering how we must all live together and feel safe and free, we, as a society, pass laws which gaurantee our freedoms and safety and so pretty much all of what is law is actually morality, even if we don’t immediately recognise it as such. And, as we all know, laws impose certain obligations and prohibitions on us all. Just like morality does. A simple edict like driving on the correct side of the road and at certain speeds, has a morality attached to it.
So, the obvious answer to “are morals a political issue” is “yes of course they are and they always have been”. A moral code is a code of laws which govern the behaviour of people.
One question often asked is, “is the Catholic Church seeking to impose its views on society?” The obvious answer is that it can’t. It does not have temporal law making capabilities.
The next question is “does the Catholic Church have the right to influence the legal system to have its morality in place?” The obvious answer is “yes”. If the answer is “no it doesn’t”, then you don’t have a free and open society and you are advocating religious discrimination. The Church represents citizens and it has the right to represent their views in all spheres of politics. After all, it seeks to regulate how individuals behave privately and how they relate to one another, just like secular laws do.
The next question must be “does the Catholic Church have a right to insist on what morality is passed into the legal system?” The answer is obviously “yes”, because , firstly it represents citizens and secondly because it bases its moral code on an objective and universal moral code which has been the hallmark of western civilisation for centuries. So, when anyone asks why is it that the Catholic Church is seeking to have its morality enshrined in Law, as is its right in a free society, the answer is because that morality has, up until recently, been a part of the law for centuries, even when people haven’t recognised it.That morality was a shared morality, a “glue” which held society together. Even people’s of different faiths held to the same basic morality, sharing what they believed was right and wrong.
cont.d
