Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Buckley on law and Christian morality
Buckley on law and Christian morality
Dec 20, 2025 12:44 PM

From a CT interview in 1995 by Michael Cromartie:

Certain things which the market authorizes simply in terms of law are unchristian and ought not to be done. The big issue today has to do with the fidelity of marriages. The tendency now to leave your wife because you have an infatuation with a younger woman of tenderer flesh is an enormous temptation. It’s carnal, and it’s also easy to justify with all the solipsistic reasoning that we hear today. That is about the gravest offense that a human being mit, to throw away a wife.

From this it doesn’t follow that the state should make the law tougher, but rather that the culture needs to be reformed. Modifying the law is only one way, and often not the best, to do that: “…unless we create a virtuous society, it’s not a society that’s going to endure. So the right things should be encouraged and the wrong things discouraged. Today, roughly speaking, there is zero taboo against fornication.”

The whole thing is worth reading, as they say (HT).

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Matthew 5:3-12   (Read Matthew 5:3-12)   Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. 1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They...
Verse of the Day
  1 Corinthians 15:57 In-Context   55 Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?Hosea 13:14   56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.   57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.   58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing...
Verse of the Day
  1 Corinthians 6:9-10 In-Context   7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?   8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.   9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Romans 6:21-23   (Read Romans 6:21-23)   The pleasure and profit of sin do not deserve to be called fruit. Sinners are but ploughing iniquity, sowing vanity, and reaping the same. Shame came into the world with sin, and is still the certain effect of it. The end of sin is death. Though the way may...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Complete Concise   Chapter Contents   Cautions against proud behaviour, and the mischief of an unruly tongue. (1-12) The excellence of heavenly wisdom, in opposition to that which is worldly. (13-18)   Commentary on James 3:1-12   (Read James 3:1-12)   We are taught to dread an unruly tongue, as one of the greatest evils. The affairs of mankind are thrown...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Psalm 62:1-7   (Read Psalm 62:1-7)   We are in the way both of duty and comfort, when our souls wait upon God; when we cheerfully give up ourselves, and all our affairs, to his will and wisdom; when we leave ourselves to all the ways of his providence, and patiently expect the event, with full...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Mark 13:5-13   (Read Mark 13:5-13)   Our Lord Jesus, in reply to the disciples' question, does not so much satisfy their curiosity as direct their consciences. When many are deceived, we should thereby be awakened to look to ourselves. And the disciples of Christ, if it be not their own fault, may enjoy holy security...
Verse of the Day
  Matthew 6:19-21 In-Context   17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,   18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.   19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on 2 Corinthians 3:12-18   (Read 2 Corinthians 3:12-18)   It is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to use great plainness, or clearness, of speech. The Old Testament believers had only cloudy and passing glimpses of that glorious Saviour, and unbelievers looked no further than to the outward institution. But the great precepts of...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Jonah 2:1-9   (Read Jonah 2:1-9)   Observe when Jonah prayed. When he was in trouble, under the tokens of God's displeasure against him for sin: when we are in affliction we must pray. Being kept alive by miracle, he prayed. A sense of God's good-will to us, notwithstanding our offences, opens the lips in prayer,...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved