By Mark Landsbaum
How can one say that government and morals shouldn't mix? And that "tolerating" homosexuality is compassionate?
Editor's note: Writer Mark Landsbaum responded to libertarian Doug Bandow (a friend of this editor) who wrote a Townhall.com column making the case against sodomy laws. We think it is an excellent response not only to Mr. Bandow, but it dismantles two libertarian errors: the idea that government and morals shouldn't mix, and that "tolerating" homosexuality is more compassionate than discouraging it. Robert Knight, director, Culture & Family Institute of CWA
Dear Mr. Bandow,
In your column "Assault on Morality?" you prop up straw men with non sequiturs, and completely fail to make your case.
The case you make is simply one for libertine self-indulgence, nothing more.
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You suggest that police don't belong in peoples' bedrooms. You know that's a nonsensical argument, a straw man. Shall we permit any behavior as long as it occurs in the bedroom?
How about pedophilia, bestiality, incest? Are those practices okay as long as we keep them in the bedroom?
Of course not. Obviously, even you believe police belong in the bedroom. So we're not arguing whether police belong in the bedroom, only what the circumstances are that warrant them to enter.
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You suggest "homosexual sex is not the principal threat to families."
So what? That's a non sequitur.
It needn't be the "principal threat" to be a serious threat. If someone is raping your wife you don't dismiss it because he isn't murdering her. Homosexual "marriage" needn't be the preeminent threat to humanity to be a serious threat.
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Whether 13 or 50 states maintain anti-sodomy laws is merely a measure of current political correctness, not moral correctness.
Not long ago many states legalized slavery. Would you argue on behalf of slavery because many states didn't deem it to be illegal?
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You complain that anti-sodomy laws reflect "intrapersonal morality (and) they attempt to mold souls." Then you make the ridiculous assertion that "government's efforts to force people to be good routinely fail."
Wrong again.
Anti-slavery laws "force people to be good." Anti-incest laws "force people to be good." Laws prohibiting murder "force people to be good." For every "failed" attempt to legislate goodness that you can cite, there are innumerable successes. Yours is a disingenuously hollow argument.
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You graciously allow that homosexuality, indeed, is a sin.
Then you preposterously assert that the Bible doesn't demand that such activities be banned. I don't know what Bible you're reading, but mine repeatedly from Genesis to Revelation - underscores the importance of man creating a social order that reflects God's law.
To enforce His righteousness God ordains governments and empowers them
with the sword:
"For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil."
(Romans 13:4)
I suggest that you take your own advice and avoid proof-texting. When referring to the Bible, please refer to it in the context of His entire message.
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Finally, you made the common, politically correct assertion that to wish for homosexuals to end their sinful ways is not to love them. This is an utter inversion of the meaning of Christian love.
To permit a person to slit his wrists and bleed to death in front of you is not an act of Christian love. It's an act of political correctness that honors the suicidal perversion that compels a person to commit that evil.
Rather, to love a person who is trying to kill himself is to urge and to help him to live instead.
Likewise, to love a person as Christ commands us is to seek that person's good, his salvation and to urge him to turn from his sin, which will send him to an eternally agonizing hell if he doesn't.
To stand by and tolerate or condone his unrepentant sin is not to love the homosexual. It's to stand by while he slits his wrists.
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You are right to note that God wants heartfelt compliance with his sexual laws. And with all his other laws, like His stance against murder, theft, incest, etc. That he wants His people to come voluntarily to Him does not mean He wants us to stand around and condone wrist slitting.
Mark Landsbaum (landsbaum@earthlink.net),a former Los Angeles Times staff writer, is an evangelical Christian, freelance writer and author.
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