"To say that men and women should not inject their "personal morality" into public policy...

[IndianaJones]

is a practical absurdity; our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition."

Barack Obama

[sandnsea]

1. Principles of behavior

Yes, our law codifies morality. Murder, stealing, child support, marriage. And yes, much of morality in the US is grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

It's a reality that has to be dealt with.

[terisan]

8. actually the Code of Hammurabi, with our rights from the French Enightenment nt

The Judeo-Christian code prohibited adultery as well as the coveting of the wives and goods owned by others. These have been abandoned in American law

[sandnsea]

9. Grounded in, not duplicated

There have been various philosophies throughout time that attempt to explain our existence and relation to each other and a supreme being, our morals and ethics. We then codify the results into law. When we become more enlightened, we sometimes change laws. But it will be a long time coming that THIS country will be able to say that the behaviors considered right and wrong aren't grounded in the Judeo-Christian religion.

[terisan]

12. I respectfully disagree. It is just a part of our cultural heritage and often not the

best part. Slaves wisely used it to justify freedom while slaveowners used it to justify slavery.

[Deja Q]

2. Hmmm.

"Judeo-Christian" is something of a contradiction -- unless I missed something, and I invariably do...

And there's a good point to his comment. A collective morality is more encompassing and less vigilante/militant than a personal morality.

Mind you, a collective morality can be seen as fascism too, but most people agree that stealing is wrong.

[patrice]

3. The various kinds of attorneys in my family tell me that Law is NOT about morality.

It is a codification how individuals and the group are to treat one another. That used to be called "ethics" and was held to be distinct from "morality" which traditionally was about what is good and what is bad.

Personally, I do NOT want Law to tell me what is moral. I want it to manage the relationships within the group.

[elleng]

6. Patrice, I'm a lawyer,

and it seems to me that following your tack results in splitting hairs, looking for the 'perfect' definitions of law, ethics, morality. (Please excuse the mixed metaphor!) Such probably don't exist.

[patrice]

7. I didn't mean to imply anything absolute.

Of course our notions of how members of the group should treat one another, ethics, would be derived from the group's average sense of right and wrong, i.e. the over-all average of each individual's morality. Should the Law ever try to impose any external "morality" upon that? There are probably situations in which that is more-or-less necessary, but I'm not sure that it works, not sure that what is produced ends up actually being morality.

My point is that law should not be responsible for morality, because without individual identification and internalization of right and wrong, there is no morality for the law to build ethics upon.

[Vincardog]

4. We are not now nor have we ever been a theocracy. The First amendment

guarantees that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of religion.
The Constitution explicitly states that "No Religious TEST' is allowed for a candidate in our government.

[elleng]

5. I would not call it a practical absurdity,

doing so feeds into the 'don't teach about religions in schools,' and other foolishness.

We should work on ways to recognize and understand all without imposing any, in particular recognize what our law is and from whence it comes; this is history. This might be considered a 'moderate' approach.

[NMMNG]

10. Bullsh*t

"the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion"

Treaty of Tripoli, 1797

[sandnsea]

11. That's not what he said

He said the morals of this country are grounded in, (not founded on), the Judeo-Christian tradition. And that laws are passed based on a society's morals. You deal with it every single day, why would you deny the reality of it?