Pastore: Well, I think I’m going to surprise you with my answer. If it were not, on the long term, harmful to your body and everyone was allowed access to it, it would be considered like a vitamin, right? The problem is this is illegal and it is incredibly harmful to your body, and there are long-term health benefits. I appreciate your hypothetical, but the reality is no, it’s terribly harmful. That’s why the government has chosen to make it an illegal substance and it is cheating. It’s like corking your bat, it’s like pine tar on the baseball it’s in that category but worse because young kids are starting to do it and they’re ruining their lives as a result.

Mohler: I really did not know how you would answer that question. I have some concerns, given the hypothetical there, that many people think there are no limits on human enhancement. When you start looking at longevity technologies and all the rest of this cryogenics, you’re looking at some pretty macabre, strange, weird stuff. Most of us would at least respond with what Leon Kass calls the “yuck factor”—it doesn’t look right, smell right, feel right.

Pastore: Exactly right!

Mohler: But when it comes to these performance-enhancing drugs, I want to ask you another question, because you made it to the big leagues, you pitched for the Reds, and for the Twins. I think the mythos of American sport—and let’s just deal with a boy who wants to play baseball—is it that if you work really hard and you have some innate ability you can press forward and you might have a chance. Do these drugs mean these guys aren’t working hard?

Pastore: Oh, no. It doubles the workout. For instance, you take two identical physical specimens and one is on steroids, the other is not. When you do your weightlifting and you are on steroids, it doubles and triples your ability to gain muscle mass. That’s where it’s cheating.

Mohler: And when you know how competitive these positions are you know it would be really hard not to do it when you know the guy who is gunning for your job is doing it.

Pastore: And that’s why we must make it illegal and must get the message to young children that this is terribly dangerous, and will not be tolerated.

In addition to being one of Salem’s nationally syndicated radio talk show hosts, R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and recognized as one of America’s leading theologians and cultural commentators. Contact Dr. Mohler at mail@albertmohler.com.