Monday, January 30, 2017

REVERENCE FOR THE LAWS

        “Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap. Let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced in courts of justice.” (Abraham Lincoln, January 27, 1838)
        Why has it become so difficult for Americans to obey laws which have been duly passed? Example: Congress passes a law and the President who has sworn to execute that law instead issues an order to ignore it. His fans stand and cheer!
       The next President issues an order to enforce that same law and is condemned, not only by citizens, but often by other elected officials who have also sworn an oath to obey those laws. It’s the Double Standard in action, I suppose, and no one seems to know what to do with the ever-present DS. I only know it truly weakens the society.
        Young lawyer Abraham Lincoln had a great idea in his words of 1838. “Reverence for the laws” means we revere them as important enough to follow. It means we hold them high above public opinion which surely not a good method of determining right or wrong.
        Of course it’s true that not all laws are equal in goodness. But if each of us makes ourself the judge of the rightness or wrongness of a law, we are walking on dangerous ground. A society in which each person becomes his or her own measure of the law is a lawless one, an anarchy. Far better that we should follow those laws or change them than merely to pick and choose, especially if we are in a position of authority.
        The Bible mentions “law” 542 times. The Gospel of Matthew uses the word two dozen times, nearly every time by Jesus Himself. He states in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Christians must take care not to capriciously uphold laws they only agree with. They are also bound by the ones they might not like.
        To teach the young it’s noble to cover their faces and hold up placards of protest, or to scream obscenities, or burn cars and break windows, is not reverence for the law. Old Abe must be rolling in his grave at what our people and elected politicians are doing and teaching others to do with the law these days.


“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)

Rev. Bob Tasler
www.bobtasler.com

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