The State Cannot Judge Morality

International Religious Liberty Association · Chicago, Illinois · Jun 28, 1900

FromThe American Sentinel, The Sentinel of Liberty, Vol. 15, No. 25.

The State Cannot Judge Morality

The state is not competent to decide what is morally right or morally wrong. It cannot do this without infringing the rights of conscience. The teachings of Luther were held by the chief civil authorities of his day to be highly immoral. His books were burned and he narrowly escaped the same fate. In some countries even to-day it is held to be highly immoral and even blasphemous to speak against the Virgin Mary. There is no certain standard by which the state can decide such questions. To undertake such a decision on the basis of the divine law is only to decide by some human interpretation of that law.