Does prohibition help or hinder the purpose of the church?
What if the legalization of vices we currently outlaw would enhance our capacity to reach those Jesus expects us to care for?
How often do we challenge our thinking and reflect on our societal norms as followers of Jesus?
Why do we as believers find it challenging to accept that legality doesn't always align with morality, and why is it difficult to be at peace with this realization?
Do we, as believers and followers of Jesus, support public policies that are incongruent with a biblical worldview? And if so, how would we know without discussing it with others?
Let’s consider why confusing legal with moral hinders us from carrying out the Lord’s work. As believers, we often grapple with the incongruity between legality and morality. Why is it difficult to accept this misalignment and find peace with the realization?
Perhaps it's our reluctance to confront the unintended consequences of our actions. Prohibition laws, intended to curb societal ills, often exacerbate problems, perpetuating cycles of violence and harm. Despite our best intentions, these laws fall short of addressing the root causes of vices, such as drug abuse, drinking, gambling, and even prostitution.
Laws convict us after the fact but rarely prevent unwanted behavior. Did we not learn anything from the Old Testament about the law’s ability to make us righteous? It was not possible for the Jews to keep the law perfectly, and many let it become a source of pride, the opposite of the law's intent.
Consider this simple thought experiment; imagine you wanted to obtain some illegal drugs even though you are not currently a drug user; how hard would it be for you to buy some in the next 24 to 72 hours?
We should, as believers, understand that merely being aware of the law does not change our hearts, and most of the vices we are concerned with are tied to heart issues. The vices we are referring to, such as gambling, narcotics, and other currently illegal drugs, or even prostitution, are often used as painkillers for an emotional wound or deficit.
We know that I John 4:20 says “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” James told us this more than 2,000 years ago, and we still ended up with Jim Crow Laws in the South, where Christianity was the dominant religion. Once those laws were overturned, hearts were not immediately changed, it was just no longer legal to discriminate against someone because of their skin color.
Only Jesus can change hearts, as The Great Physician, he performs the best heart transplants.
Prohibition has consequences that outweigh the benefits in almost all cases. How do we get to “prohibition,” and what are the consequences:
Society deems something that causes enough harm, like alcohol in the early 20th century, or currently various drugs like cannabis or cocaine, and outlaws their manufacture, distribution, sale, possession, and consumption.
The demand for newly outlawed items has been only slightly reduced, and people are willing to pay more for those things because they are illegal. This opens up the black market because some people will find the higher price paid offsets the consequences of getting caught making or selling them.
When the price goes up, often that drives new providers into a market, and this is true of illegal drugs; organized crime gets involved because of high margins.
Without legal recourse when disputes arise, buyers and sellers resort to coercion and other forms of violence to settle them.
The level of violence typically increases, as does the value of the market, which leads to a greater desire for law enforcement involvement and, with that, a greater tax burden.
Gang-related shootings and murders are tied to protecting their sales territory or handling other disputes that cannot be handled in a court of law.
This creates a vicious cycle in which the costs of protecting a sales territory are passed on to the consumer, raising prices, and attracting more sellers, which increases the violence, etc.
If we care about those dying from drug overdoses, especially now with fentanyl being mixed into various drugs, and those impacted by gang violence, then we ought to consider the consequences of our laws.
Think about the person who goes to their boss to take time off for rehabilitation from alcohol abuse. They face little stigma. They also have not admitted to breaking any laws. What about if that same lady were to ask for time off for heroin abuse? She has admitted to committing a felony if she goes to her leadership and is totally transparent.
For years, I struggled with feeling like the laws and morality should be intertwined, as many people no doubt still do. We want to save families from the horrors of drug and alcohol abuse or any of the other vices that are outlawed. We feel like voting for them to be legal is the same as advocating for them.
We cannot in good conscience advocate that people abuse drugs, solve their financial or emotional woes with gambling, or think that paying for physical affection will heal our emotional wounds.
We also cannot ignorantly believe that prohibition solves the problem. Outlawing the vice does not solve the root issue, heart, spiritual, or emotional problems. Prohibition reduces demand only slightly and creates violent crime where none should exist because disputing parties can resort to the legal system for legally sold and obtained products for which problems arise.
Why do we as believers find it challenging to accept that legality doesn't always align with morality, and why is it difficult to be at peace with this realization? For me, this journey took more than a decade of thinking about, hearing many different people’s opinions from Milton Friedman, local talk show host Jeff Ward, and many of the team from the Libertarian Christian Institute speak about it.
We should ask ourselves if the consequences—the intended and unplanned results —of those laws are the ones we ultimately sought after in the first place.
Legalizing vices that we currently outlaw could enhance our capacity to connect with those we profess to care about by reducing violent crime and other unintended consequences of prohibition.
Talk about this with others. Pray about it. #JustThinkAboutIt
