In an excellent post today, the Bionic Mosquito argues that Christians and other religious people should not use the state to try to enforce virtue. He follows the great Puritan minister Roger Williams and recognizes, “as Williams did, that such involvement by Christians towards their government – certainly since the Enlightenment, if not the Reformation (and I don’t dream of turning back any clocks) – will only corrupt Christianity.” It does not follow, he says, that Christians should ignore society. “It is the job of civil authorities (government, private insurance companies, whatever) to deal with matters of aggression.  Formal physical punishment – whether prisons, fines, etc. – belongs in this realm.  It is the job of other institutions – and this is precisely where I see Christian churches playing a role – to deal with what can be described as non-aggressive moral transgressions.”

The Best of David Gordon