My political and religious beliefs often seem to be in contradiction to many. I support legalizing drugs, prostitution, polygamy, gay marriage, pornography, suicide, and a whole lot of other things that most Christians would flinch at. But why do I think this? How can I be a Christian and support the legalization of these things?
Because this is what the Word of God demonstrates is most effective, and most right.
God Himself, Who alone has the right to do anything He wishes to people, set the perfect example in the Garden of Eden. Instead of controlling men and keeping them from sin by force, He placed a tree in the Garden from which we were not supposed to eat. He gave mankind a way out of its simple, happy life; even when men were unable to comprehend evil they had free will.
And likewise, when men were trapped in sin, God gave them a way out through Christ. He again did not force them to come unto Him, they had to accept it of their own free will. Revelation 3:20 says "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in with him and dine with him, and he with Me." Christ knocks, but we must hear Him and open the door.
God gave man free will, and He, Who alone has the right to violate our free will (He made us and thus we are His property), did not. If God did not violate our free will, mankind has no right whatsoever to violate someone's free will.
What is it to exercise free will, though? Does this mean that humans have no right to defend themselves if someone else's free will involves murder, for example? No. It means that all men are to be allowed to exercise their free will so long as they do not harm someone else in doing so. This is why all men everywhere recognize murder, rape and theft to be immoral. If someone wants to bed a consenting prostitute, it does not harm me or anyone who doesn't wish to be harmed.
This is actually good for the Kingdom of God, because it makes men honest. Make sin illegal and people will honor God with their lips but their hearts will be far from Him. At least when a sinner is honest, you know where they stand, and can minister accordingly. Besides, it makes standing for Christ all the more meaningful when you aren't coerced into it, and those who do have a relationship with Christ when sin is legal tend to have stronger faith for it.
This is illustrated by the experiences of Israel. In the days of the judges, Israel scarcely had a government. Once in a while, military leaders called judges would rally the tribal militias and drive out the Philistine occupiers. But the worship of God was not coerced, and free will reigned. Coincidentally, the Israelites were true worshippers of God about half the time, and they fell away half the time.
Yet when they cried out for a king, and God reluctantly gave them one, the kings forced a state religion upon them. At first, that state religion was true worship of God, but even the reign of Israel's first three kings (when that worship was most undiluted) saw an abandonment of God by Saul, who led Israel into that abandonment. Solomon led Israel into sin by worshipping idols, and after that the state religion wholly corrupted Israel and led them into perdition, both physical and spiritual. A few restorers of the faith here and there, like Josiah and Hezekiah, were not enough to save Israel from foreign captivity as a punishment for their sins. And it was their state, the overarching moralizing of government, that made that sin possible.
Also, when the Romans made Christianity the state religion, they led the people astray. They blended paganism with the true Christian faith by force of arms, and led the people into gross error that continues to this day in such institutions as Easter, Christmas, and the canonical Bible. Needless to say, the Roman Empire fell soon afterwards.
Similarly, I tremble for my nation when I hear of sin becoming illegal. People must be free to sin honestly or else their worship will be just as fraudulent. The government is force, illegitimacy, fraud, and corruption all tied up into one body... and the faith is far too important to allow it to commingle with such an immoral institution.
STUART RICHARDS