Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
St. John of San Francisco
Orthodox Information & Resources
Orthodox Blogs
-
-
-
Dust of the Earth3 days ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Non-Orthodox Blogs
-
-
-
-
The SSPX Sex Abuse Case: the Full Story8 hours ago
-
-
What does this mean?15 hours ago
-
"Textual Criticism"17 hours ago
-
-
-
Politics Economics Culture & Miscellaneous Blogs
Don't blame me... I voted for George (the Third)
-
-
-
The morning read for Thursday, April 1812 hours ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Miscellaneous Sites of Interest
The Blog Yard
Where the best blogs go when they die...
Gone But Not Forgotten
-
-
A Brief Return10 months ago
-
‘The Jews are beloved of God’4 years ago
-
-
Moving day5 years ago
-
Sayonara for now6 years ago
-
MY FELLOW AMERICANS7 years ago
-
A Week in Iceland! Part 17 years ago
-
Coda8 years ago
-
Ten Years is a Long Run…8 years ago
Atom / RSS
2 comments:
Excellent points made by the Chaplain, Peter Christ (what a name!). That we condone our government to wage domestic war on its own citizens is particularly egregious.
This is the point that Lysander Spooner was trying to make in his much-misunderstood essay "Vices Are Not Crimes."
To give you a local example, New Zealand decriminalized prostitution several years ago. Many people (including many religious leaders whom I respect), predicted that the result would be a "boom" for the sex industry.
That has not been the case, for several reasons. First, there is a licensing regime, strongly enforced. Second, it is still illegal to import prostitutes from other countries. Third, the zoning and consent laws around brothels are quite strict (e.g., they cannot be close to churches or schools, etc.).
To give you an example of what I mean, there was a "massage parlor" in an expensive neighbourhood, which existed for many years before legalization was passed. After the law change, the "massage parlor" applied for a brothel license. The neighbors objected, the local council refused the consent, and the "parlor"/brothel, which had been there for many years, had to close its doors!
Similarly, quite a number of "free lancers," who had been operating out of their own houses and apartments for years, started getting turned in by their neighbors, for operating without a license. Street-walking, which used to be fairly common in many parts of South Auckland, has now dropped significantly. All in all, the "sex industry" in NZ is no larger than it was before legalization, and (I expect) may actually have shrunk.
To me, the best way for society to handle vices, in general, is for the public authorities to concentrate on public health and harm reduction, and for the Church to handle the underlying spiritual maladies. Criminally prosecuting vices, as such, always backfires.
Post a Comment