🔥 SHAPIRO UNLEASHED: Beyond the Bible—Why Libertarian Logic Drives His Stance on Gay Marriage and Gun Rights 🔥

The Secular Showdown: Ben Shapiro Dares the GOP to Drop Leviticus and Fight the Culture War on Pure Principle

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro is once again igniting controversy by offering a complex, intellectual defense of his positions on deeply divisive issues like Gay Marriage and Gun Control, often challenging the very religious establishment he is associated with. In a recent detailed discussion, Shapiro laid bare his philosophy, arguing that the government is the central problem, not the solution, to nearly everything.

Marriage: Get the Government Out of the Ceremony

Shapiro’s stance on marriage surprises many on the right. He advocates for the government to be “completely out of the business of marriage,” arguing that the state has proven “terrible at everything” it attempts to manage.

This position is rooted not in theology, but in a profound fear of government overreach.

“The reason I want the government out of the business of marriage is because now that the government has enshrined gay marriage, the next step is going to be going to religious people and telling them they have to engage with same-sex weddings,” Shapiro argued.

He paints a dystopian picture, citing the case of the Oregon bakery owner who was fined a substantial amount (reported as $135,000, but often debated) for refusing to cater a same-sex wedding.

“A man will come to your house with a gun and he will tell you that if you do not cater this wedding,” he states, highlighting what he sees as the inevitable trajectory of state power: the transformation of a “liberal” who says “your business, I don’t care” into a “leftist” who insists “you will be made to care.”

The Secular Rationale for Subsidies:

While advocating for total government retreat, Shapiro maintains that if the government must stay involved, its subsidies (like tax breaks) should only go to traditional, heterosexual marriage.

His reasoning is secular: “The only purpose for the government getting involved in marriage is the procreation of the next generation and the raising of that generation.”

Since same-sex couples cannot biologically fulfill the state’s historical interest in subsidizing child production (to prevent the social costs of single motherhood), the subsidy should not apply equally. He makes a key distinction: this is a policy argument, not a religious imposition.

Guns and the Mental Health Crisis: The Real Problem

Shapiro’s infamous 2013 on-air clash with Piers Morgan over gun control continues to define his career. While Shapiro affirms his staunch belief in the Second Amendment and the right to self-defense—driven by his deep distrust of government—he agrees with his critics on one key point: America has a massive underlying problem with violence that isn’t solved by gun control.

Changing the Piers Morgan Narrative:

In a dramatic re-telling of the debate, Shapiro stated his core confrontation with Morgan:

“You’re a bully, and the way that you bully people is you stand on the graves of the children of Sandy Hook to push your political agenda.”

To ramp up the drama, let’s imagine the debate peaked when Morgan, frustrated by Shapiro’s intellectual rigor, threw a provocative personal challenge at him: “You don’t care about the victims because you’ve never seen real suffering!” Shapiro, without missing a beat, fired back by citing the shocking statistical realities of deinstitutionalization as the root cause of mass violence.

The Deinstitutionalization Disaster:

Shapiro argues that the core issue is not a gun problem, but a mental health crisis created by decades of failed government policy.

In the 1960s and 1970s, many states began emptying mental institutions—a decision based on the misguided belief that institutionalization was always harmful.

1960: Approximately 559,000 people were in U.S. state and county mental hospitals (according to data from the National Institute of Mental Health).

Today: That number is dramatically lower, with inpatient populations in state facilities hovering around 35,000 (a figure often cited in current mental health advocacy, though exact annual numbers vary).

“You have a lot of violent people on the streets,” Shapiro contends. He argues that almost every mass shooter is someone known to be mentally unstable, often suffering from conditions like paranoid schizophrenia and going off medication because involuntary commitment laws are too weak.

“Taking my guns away from me or taking another law-abiding person’s gun away from them that’s not going to stop the mass shooter,” he concludes. Instead, the focus should be on proper involuntary commitment laws and rebuilding a functional, funded mental health infrastructure.

The GOP’s Religious Trap

Ultimately, Shapiro believes that the Republican party must adopt his secular, limited-government arguments to effectively fight the left’s expanding power.

He criticizes religious conservatives who cite Leviticus 18:22 as the main reason to oppose gay marriage, calling it an “ineffective” argument in the public square. He argues that by relying purely on religious code, the right fails to articulate a secular defense for liberty and simultaneously invites the government to use its power—like the infamous Ring of Power from The Lord of the Rings.

“If you don’t take power out of the hands of government… it will be used against you,” Shapiro warns, urging the right to see the government itself as the corrupting force.

Do you agree with Shapiro that the government should exit the marriage business entirely, or should it subsidize marriage equally? Share your thoughts below!