Can't Legislate Morality

You can't legislate morality.  I've said this many times.  What does that mean?  Passing laws against social injustices such as racism or discrimination, drug or alcohol use, pornography, child abuse, animal abuse, sex trafficking, or any moral issue is not going to change anybody's mind or behavior.

The best example I can think of is prohibition. Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933. Did it stop people from drinking alcohol?  No.  The production and sale of alcohol just went underground.  Much like illegal drugs today.  Just because something is illegal doesn't mean people aren't going to do it.

Passing laws against vices may decrease consumption, but it certainly doesn't stop it.

Obviously, the big issue today that the media is shoving down our throats is the black lives matter social injustice racist cops movement.  Let's just pretend that it's a legitimate organization with honorable motives -- which obviously it's not.  But if it was, what changes do they expect to come from their protests?  We already have all of the civil rights laws passed in the 1960s. You can't legislate the evil out of bad cops or bad anybody who wants to do bad things.  So what do all of these angry protesters expect to accomplish?  They angrily cry for change but they have no solution except to defund and eliminate the police.  That's brilliant.  Their solution is to make things worse on the very population they are crying injustice against.

If you have a bad cop who killed a man, do you really think that getting rid of all cops has any effect whatsoever on the bad cop?  It's ridiculous.  How do these people even come up with these nonsensical ideas?  How about you put the bad cop in jail and let the good cops do their job in serving their communities?  There is no law you can pass that will turn a bad cop into a good cop.  There is no law that you can pass that can turn any bad person into a good person.  You cannot legislate morality.

You can't pass a law saying that racism is illegal and expect racists to all of a sudden love everybody unconditionally.  Passing laws that prohibit alcohol do not suddenly sober up alcoholics.  Passing laws against drug abuse doesn't rehabilitate drug addicts. Passing laws against police brutality will not suddenly turn bad cops into good cops. Passing laws against any moral issue will not stop people from behaving immorally.

Adultery used to be illegal.  In fact, it's still illegal in 18 states, punishable by fine and/or jail time.  I looked it up.  Although it's never enforced. In some countries, it's punishable by death.  Yet, adultery is flourishing and is probably more prevalent now than ever.

When society loses its morals, society degrades.  You cannot legislate integrity, conscience, and good behavior back into people.  Good behavior, integrity, wanting to do what's right -- has to come from within.  People have to want to be good.  You can write all the laws you want to try to better society and change people and their behaviors.  But until people want to change and want to be better, the laws are really useless.  Yes, you can motivate people through fear of punishment, but it doesn't change their basic morality or lack thereof.

Unfortunately, there will always be bad people who do bad things -- despite any and all laws of the land against their bad behavior.  One of our most prized possessions and central to Heavenly Father's plan of happiness is His gift of agency.

Because we all have God-given agency, we make our own choices.  Sometimes the consequences of those choices may motivate us one way or the other but nonetheless, everyone is free to choose how they want to live their life.

All of these black lives matter, occupy Wall Street, Capitol Hill occupied protest, Police brutality protests, or any social injustice flavor of the day protests are really pointless.  What do they expect to accomplish?  Most of them don't even know what they are protesting if you ask them.  And the few that do, don't have any solutions to the changes they want made.  They are just angry people who don't like something and pull tantrums like toddlers.  Except they are adults who commit adult crimes in the process.

The thing about these angry protesters is that they want everyone to think the same way they do and behave the same way they do and if you don't, you are the object of their vitriol.  They claim free speech and tolerance yet if you don't embrace their ideology, they spew hatred towards you.  They certainly won't tolerate anyone who doesn't agree with them.  They are the definition of hypocrite.

So they can protest all they want against what they feel are injustices.  But you can't legislate morality into people.  And unfortunately as society continues to degrade morally, things will get worse, not better.

If you really want to change society for the better, then teach and embrace morality.  Protesting and trying to legislate morality doesn't change anybody.

You can't change bad people into good people.  They have to change themselves.  You cannot legislate morality.

That's my two cents.