Legislating Morality ~ Prohibition, Gun Control, and the 21st Amendment

Progressivism was a movement of the early twentieth century that sought political and social reform through education, industrialization, direct democracy and increased government intervention.  Perhaps the most monumental—and also the most controversial—progressive reform was the prohibition of alcohol.  'Strong drink' seemed to be at the root of most social problems: drunken parents neglected or abused their children while spending money on alcohol instead of on food or clothing; prison inmates blamed alcohol for leading them into crime, and businessmen supposed alcohol to be indirectly decreasing production through worker absences and accidents due to drunkenness.  The progressives saw Prohibition as a means of eliminating these major social issues; the general supposition was that crime and poverty would be outlawed along with alcohol.

Prohibition was established by the Eighteenth Amendment, ratified in 1919, and progressives assumed everything would fix itself after that.  We all know that nobody could acquire a drop of liquor during the roaring twenties, right?  No, an illegal bootlegging industry quickly sprang up, with “moonshiners” brewing and selling liquor under cover of darkness, “rum runners” smuggling in alcohol from the Caribbean, and illegal saloons serving bathtub gin.  Organized crime and police corruption flourished.  The “roaring twenties” were called that for a reason!  It was soon realized that instead of solving the social problems I mentioned, Prohibition had actually made things worse; only thirteen years after it took effect, the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment. 

I have recounted this piece of our constitutional history because it contains some modern parallels that have seen heated debate for years, and conveys a very important lesson for Americans today.  The Twenty-first Amendment taught us that there are things the government can and should reasonably and successfully control or regulate, and things it absolutely can and should not.  Firearms, now taking the place of alcohol in this sense, are being viewed as the root of many societal problems, and are being outlawed in an attempt to solve those issues.

It is my fervent contention that neither alcohol nor guns are inherently evil.  Each has the ability to amplify the character and intentions of the one who holds it in his hands.  Alcohol has beneficial uses, both medical and medicinal, depending upon whether it is applied externally or internally.  Guns have enabled some of their owners to protect themselves or others, or defend their country; and others to conquer or commit murder.  We didn’t need to keep liquor from God-fearing, sober men in the twentieth century, and we could not effectively keep it from those committed to abusing it.  Neither can we succeed with the kind of gun control that would, in any reasonable attempt, keep guns from being abused by those bent on evil without crippling the ability of the law-abiding citizen to utilize these tools for good causes.  This problem will perhaps never disappear, but it cannot be resolved by the passage of a law that attempts to deny persons something that they will not be denied.

The point is that those individuals who are willing to be held to a certain set of morals already are, while persons seeking more than tacit approval of their behavior are already engaging in it at will, and will continue to do so.  Morality cannot be held in place by legislation.  The government created by the United States constitution is a self-government, whose success depends upon the moral responsibility of its keepers.  As John Adams aptly stated, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people; it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  Individuals must accept an inherent moral code, because without it their actions cannot be effectively controlled.  The Eighteenth Amendment and the resulting Twenty-First Amendment are permanent scars on our Constitution: they are a stark reminder that the morality of a nation comes from deep within the hearts and consciences of individuals, not from government legislation. 

Our Story ~ Heirs to the Promise

When Abram entered the covenant with God, he became Abraham—he became the first Jew.  Israel began with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and remains today, thousands of years later.  There are no other groups who have survived that long!  Time and again, people have tried to terminate the nation of Israel—their captivity in Ancient Egypt, the Crusades, the Holocaust, and Middle Eastern conflict to this day—but they always survive.  What makes Israel so special?  What makes Israel Israeli? 

If someone is a true-born Jew, we say they’re a Jew by blood.  But what exactly does that mean?  The Pharisees, pious, law-abiding Jews, claimed to be children of Abraham; so is it their ancestry, the physical blood of Abraham?  No… Isaac was not Abraham’s only son: there was also Ishmael, who fathered the Arab nations.  All of the Middle East could claim Abraham as their father by blood, yet they are the sworn enemies of Israel. 

When the Israelites fled Egypt, many other peoples went with them and were absorbed into the Nation of Israel, journeying with them to the Promised Land.  When they arrived and Joshua led them in, the first city they conquered was Jericho: per the Lord’s instructions, they killed every inhabitant of Jericho except one.  Rahab, who did not have the blood of Abraham in her veins, married a Jew called Salmon and became the mother of Boaz.  Boaz later married Ruth, the woman who had returned from Moab with Naomi, and by her he became the father of Obed, the father of Jesse.  Jesse was the father of David, the King of Israel, and from David’s direct line came Jesus, the Messiah.

Physical blood does not make one Israeli: Rahab was a prostitute from a defeated pagan nation, and Ruth was a Moabite, from the culture that sacrificed their children in the fire of the god Molech.  Neither could claim a single drop of the blood of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yet they were in the direct line of Jesus!  How much more Israeli can you get?!

It is not as though God’s word has failed.  For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.  Nor because they are his descendants are they Abraham’s children.  On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”  In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.  For this is how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.

Not only that, but Rebekah’s children had one and the same father, our father Isaac.  Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “the older will serve the younger.”

What then shall we say?  Is God unjust?  Not at all!  For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. – Romans 9:6-16

Of all Abraham’s children, Isaac was special: he was the Child of Promise.  He was blessed for, in Isaac, life came out of death—twice.  He was born out of the deadness of Sarah’s womb.  Further, he became a living sacrifice.  At God’s order, Abraham journeyed for three days to the mountain called Moriah, to sacrifice Isaac as an offering to the Lord.  For three days, Isaac was as good as dead in the heart of Abraham; yet, when Abraham was preparing to take Isaac up the mountain, he said to his servant, “We will return to you.”  Abraham knew that Isaac was the child of promise, and he had faith that God would raise him from the dead if necessary.  On Mount Moriah, which means God provides, God provided life to Isaac so that the promise might also live.  For three days, Isaac was dead, and then was alive again through the promise of God’s mercy on the mountain called Moriah. 

Israel as a nation also came from death to life.  They were subdued in captivity in Egypt, and God used Moses to bring them out.  During their escape, they walked on the bottom of the Red Sea.  If you walk on the bottom of the sea, you are dead (unless, of course, you are in some bizarre movie like the Pirates of the Caribbean… but that’s beside the point.).  Israel was as good as dead in Egypt, but God brought them back to life. 

Many, many years after Abraham descended that mountain with his restored son, the Israelites, newly freed from death in Egypt, built a city right next to Mount Moriah.  Outside of that city, there was a spar of hill that protruded from the mountain.  The city was called Jerusalem.  That spar of hill had a very unique feature: it looked like a skull.  They called it Golgotha. 

On Mount Moriah—the Lord provides—where Isaac, the child of promise, became alive out of death, the Son of God was crucified to fulfill that promise, then returned to life on the third day to provide a way of eternal life.

Coincidence?

I think not. 

It is by the Promise that we are called.

Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”  Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.  The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”  So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. – Galatians 3:6-9

If you belong to Christ, you are Abraham’s offspring and heirs to the promise of Isaac, the promise of God's mercy.  It’s not the physical blood of Abraham that made Israel special, but the promise of redemption through the blood of Christ.  Now, Israel is anyone who contains Jesus.  The nation of Israel birthed the Lord incarnate over two thousand years ago, and now Jesus is within us through the gift of the Holy Spirit.  We are Israel.  The Bible is our story: we need to read it from Genesis to maps, because it’s all ours.  We need to share the whole story with everyone we meet, because every page has Jesus Christ on it.

I give credit for this post to my forensics coach, Steven Vaughan, as it is adapted from one of his devotions in club.  Coach, thank you for your passion and inspiration.  You are an incredible blessing to my life, in so many ways.