The Purpose of Government?

A brewer in Utah markets a hearty brew called Polygamy Porter. The sales pitch says, "Take a six pack home to your wives." Recent television documentaries and a Salt Lake City newspaper have made it clear that in some corners of Utah there are more wives than husbands.

So what does polygamy have to do with the functions of a government?

Most people agree that we should have no more government than enough to protect citizens from felons, fires, diseases, bad drivers, drunken airline pilots, et cetera. Good roads, clean rivers and care for the needy also have become things that most tax payers expect for their money. Furthermore, many people give lip service, if not support, for separation of Church and State.

Back to polygamy. Polygamy was "revealed" to be morally wrong to church leaders in Utah. It was no coincidence that it became a condition for Utah to become a state. Utah "joined the union" by limiting marital unions. This would seem to be an extreme case of mixing Church and State.

Some men and women approve of and apparently enjoy polygamy. Is it the government's business to decide who joins who in holy matrimony? The Cedar Key News editorial board and a lot of other people are confused by our government being involved in who practices polygamy. Cedar Key News neither endorses nor condemns polygamy. We DO support separation of Church and State, both keeping government out of religious practices and keeping religious beliefs out of government policy. Whether it is the Taliban, Puritans or other religious fanatics running the government, individual rights and beliefs get trampled.

When free thinkers such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine cooperated with the more conventional and Christian revolutionaries to write our Constitution, they must have believed that separation of Church and State could and should work, in both directions.