Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

June 30, 2011

Political government ? to the extent it has any legitimacy at all -- must be limited to protecting life and property from aggression and deliberate fraud. Tutoring people in moral behavior, and imposing sanctions for immoral acts, are roles properly carried out by other institutions, the family being the most important.

As the British philosopher of liberty John Locke observed, parental authority is ordained by the Creator, not the State, and cannot be properly alienated to the government. The opposite view, known by the legal expression ?Parens Patriae? ? roughly translated as the fatherhood of the State ? undermines parental authority and leads eventually to totalitarianism.

Focus on the Family described a recent Supreme Court decision striking down a California ordinance restricting sale or rental of violent video games to children as a ?disappointment for parents.? The group expressed the hope that state governments will continue to carry out what it described as their responsibility ?to protect children from violent material.? But that approach expands the pernicious doctrine of parens patriae, rather than enhancing the legitimate authority of parents to protect their children.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.