A
AaronsStaff
Guest
What is Catholic teaching on obeying the law, when the law becomes overbearing?
Where I live we have incredibly strict recycling laws that are largely unenforced, after reading through the law, I’m left wondering what I can actually throw in the trash after reading through the categorizations of what needs to be set aside for recycling. In my household we recycle obvious items, glass, plastic, metal containers, but the listing of what we are supposed to recycle is quite extensive, and it seems incredibly overbearing and unreasonable. Regular waste paper is supposed to be recycled rather than put in the trash, but often times such paper has sensitive personal information on it that I would much rather prefer to crumple up and throw in the trash rather than leave out for recycle where someone could lift it. In addition to this we are supposed to parse regular house hold products comply with these overbearing laws, cereal boxes are not supposed to be thrown in the trash, but the plastic bag inside the cereal box is supposed to be thrown in the trash, so this forces us to sift through our trash to discern what we are allowed to toss out and what we aren’t. In short these laws are unreasonable and overbearing in my opinion.
Am I compelled under pain of sin to comply with this law? I’m not being malicious about it, I recycle much of what needs to be recycle, but even the single piece of scrap paper according to this law must be recycled. Do I have to go sifting through my trash to pull out these scraps?
I have wondered about this question before, and I have never received a coherent all encompassing answer. I understand we are to obey our lawful authorities, but at what point does the law no longer command obedience? I know we are permitted to and called to disobey the law when the law calls for us to sin, I’m not sure about official Church teaching on this, but this at least appears to be a narrow definition. What about in cases where the law doesn’t force you to sin, but prevents you from practicing virtue? For example, the absurd law in New York City that you are not allowed to feed the homeless. The law doesn’t expressly decree that you must sin, but it prevents you from doing an act of charity, would you be in the right to disobey this law?
Or what about in the case of it being against the law for children to set up a lemonade stand, is it a sin for parents to permit their small children to have some fun by setting up a lemonade stand, and moreover is it a sin for an amiable neighbor to pay 50 cents for a cup of their lemonade? The law is being broken here, the law doesn’t mandate sin, so were the people involved wrong to allow their kids to set up the lemonade stand?
Now how about a more controversial situation. It is the law that children must be in school except in cases of excused absences for the cases of illness, death in the family, some legitimate reason. Now let’s say a parent kept their child out of school on their birthday with an unexcused absence for a day of fun. Now the parent is technically breaking the law, the law that their child attend school, but do parental rights supersede the laws of the state? And if so, does this not open the door for legitimate disobedience to the civil law in cases besides where the law commands us to sin?
In short I am asking, when is it okay to ignore or disobey the civil law?
Is disobedience only permitted when the law explicitly mandates you to sin?
Or is disobedience permitted when the law prevents the exercise of virtue as well?
And, do overbearing laws command unconditional obedience?
Where I live we have incredibly strict recycling laws that are largely unenforced, after reading through the law, I’m left wondering what I can actually throw in the trash after reading through the categorizations of what needs to be set aside for recycling. In my household we recycle obvious items, glass, plastic, metal containers, but the listing of what we are supposed to recycle is quite extensive, and it seems incredibly overbearing and unreasonable. Regular waste paper is supposed to be recycled rather than put in the trash, but often times such paper has sensitive personal information on it that I would much rather prefer to crumple up and throw in the trash rather than leave out for recycle where someone could lift it. In addition to this we are supposed to parse regular house hold products comply with these overbearing laws, cereal boxes are not supposed to be thrown in the trash, but the plastic bag inside the cereal box is supposed to be thrown in the trash, so this forces us to sift through our trash to discern what we are allowed to toss out and what we aren’t. In short these laws are unreasonable and overbearing in my opinion.
Am I compelled under pain of sin to comply with this law? I’m not being malicious about it, I recycle much of what needs to be recycle, but even the single piece of scrap paper according to this law must be recycled. Do I have to go sifting through my trash to pull out these scraps?
I have wondered about this question before, and I have never received a coherent all encompassing answer. I understand we are to obey our lawful authorities, but at what point does the law no longer command obedience? I know we are permitted to and called to disobey the law when the law calls for us to sin, I’m not sure about official Church teaching on this, but this at least appears to be a narrow definition. What about in cases where the law doesn’t force you to sin, but prevents you from practicing virtue? For example, the absurd law in New York City that you are not allowed to feed the homeless. The law doesn’t expressly decree that you must sin, but it prevents you from doing an act of charity, would you be in the right to disobey this law?
Or what about in the case of it being against the law for children to set up a lemonade stand, is it a sin for parents to permit their small children to have some fun by setting up a lemonade stand, and moreover is it a sin for an amiable neighbor to pay 50 cents for a cup of their lemonade? The law is being broken here, the law doesn’t mandate sin, so were the people involved wrong to allow their kids to set up the lemonade stand?
Now how about a more controversial situation. It is the law that children must be in school except in cases of excused absences for the cases of illness, death in the family, some legitimate reason. Now let’s say a parent kept their child out of school on their birthday with an unexcused absence for a day of fun. Now the parent is technically breaking the law, the law that their child attend school, but do parental rights supersede the laws of the state? And if so, does this not open the door for legitimate disobedience to the civil law in cases besides where the law commands us to sin?
In short I am asking, when is it okay to ignore or disobey the civil law?
Is disobedience only permitted when the law explicitly mandates you to sin?
Or is disobedience permitted when the law prevents the exercise of virtue as well?
And, do overbearing laws command unconditional obedience?
