Confusing the concepts of illegality and immorality is a very dangerous thing. If something is illegal, that only means that a certain government has a law against it backed by some punishment. This does not mean that the law should exist at all, or that the attached punishment is just. If something is wrong, it is a thing that should not be done, whether or not it is legally allowed in any country. Illegality and immorality are not synonymous conceptually, definitionally, or morally. To say that something is wrong because a government has codified against it is to argue based on an appeal to authority--a major fallacy.
Things totally antithetical to Christian ethics were legal at one point in some countries, and good things were at one point illegal. Consider that the American slave trade (Exodus 21:16), Nazi concentration camps (Exodus 21:12), Roman crucifixion (Deuteronomy 25:3), and Spartan infanticide (again, Exodus 21:12) were all legal within their respective areas. And consider that being a Christian and refusing to worship a Roman emperor at one point would have been penalized with execution. With these things in mind, and some basic knowledge of Biblical morality, I find it astonishing that Christians are sometimes quick to appeal to a law of their nation as a basis for believing that something is right or wrong.
The laws of each nation can only be just or good to the extent that they are perfectly aligned with a universal standard. If a universal standard does not exist, then there is no basis for calling one set of laws just and another unjust. The conflicting laws of different countries can't all be simultaneously right, of course. Something is not morally good and obligatory just because it is legally prescribed. One of the most asinine beliefs I've ever heard some Christians articulate is the idea that Christians are obligated to act according to the arbitrary, conflicting laws of various nations based upon their geography and time they live in. This, although it may be denied by those who believe it, is a kind of theistic moral relativism that contradicts the Bible, as morality is grounded in God and God's nature does not change (Malachi 3:6).
Legality according to the standards of a specific government has nothing to do with something being right or wrong. It isn't difficult to realize this logically, and yet many people seem to still believe this nonsense. It is a sign of systematic irrationality that a large number of people will actually cite the legality or illegality of a thing at a very specific time in history and a very specific geographical place as the way that they know something is right or wrong. And until they abandon such idiotic and fallacious moral beliefs, these people will continue to believe in moral conclusions that are arbitrary, relative to their own culture (depriving them of any actual intrinsic weight), and backed by arguments that could literally be used to argue for any moral conclusion at all as long as some government enforces it.
Logic, people. It is helpful.
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