Letter or Spirit of the Law?

[PoliSciProf]

I think this is right forum for this. If not, I trust it wiil be moved to its proper forum. The question: whether one talks about secular law or Church law, is it better to follow The Letter of the Law or The Spirit of the Law? Please offer your reasoning if you post. A poll follows.

 

[DanteAlighieri]

It depends.

Naturally, an ideal law is one in which the spirit is captured by the words.

Absent a sufficient comprehension of the spirit of the law, one ought to submit to its authority and obey the letter of the law.

Peace,
Dante

 

[NewUlm1976_2000]

It depends on the situation. Life is a endless parade of grey situations. This means most situations are “Spirit of the Law” times. A more rigid “Letter of the Law” interpretation usually only presents itself at only a few times in life. Otherwise it is too inflexible to deal with the variations of people and situations we come upon.

 

[Chovy]

I am a firm believer in following the letter of the law. It’s hard to go wrong when you do. When people present me with “grey” situations, I generally still see them as black and white.

 

[SMHW]

I’m going to say it depends on the authority behind the law.

There’s a difference between one of the Ten Commandments and some ordinance passed by the local homeowners association. The first law is from God. The second law might be a good thing to preserve order in a community or it might be the result of a power trip by a board of people who think they are gods.

Some laws, like “Do Not Murder” are moral in and of themselves. Other’s like “Don’t run a red light” are morally neutral means designed to met a moral imperative. There’s never a reason to murder. While they are outside of the ordinary, there are some good, moral, and legal reasons to go through a red light.

Even laws that seem very clear need to be interpreted. I wonder if sometimes we think that an interpretation is the spirit of a law. I don’t think that’s always true. I think that the letter of a law also includes the logical interpretation of that law. The problem is that sometimes humans aren’t that logical or we are missing some facts. (That’s why we need the Church to interpret scripture.)

 

[Transformer]

There seems to be a rampant idea in the world today that following the spirit of the law normally and regularly means breaking the letter of the law. That’s totally wrong; it is an extremely rare case indeed in which following the spirit of the law means disregarding the letter of the law rather than surpassing and transcending it.

The classic example of following the spirit of the law comes from Matthew 5: 28, “Any man who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Do I read that command and think “Gee, I guess the spirit of the law against adultery forbids, not merely adultery itself, but the lust that leads to it. But hey, now that I’m following the spirit of the law, maybe I’ll come across a case in which actual adultery is moral; after all, I’m following the spirit of the law rather than the letter”?

Obviously, that’s nonsense. If a person understands that lust itself is evil and that he must conform his desires to God’s will so that they reflect the love of God, adultery is so far out of the question that he doesn’t even give it a thought. That’s the norm: if a person understands the spirit of the law and follows it, then normally, breaking the letter of the law is so totally out of the question so as not even to be a thought in the person’s mind.

God bless.

 

[BobP123]

Depends on the penalty/fine.

 

[otjm]

Christ roundly and repeatedly condemned the Pharisees for following the Letter of the Law.

If one reads a bit more deeply, one finds that the Pharisees were guilty of using the Letter of the Law to avoid the higher obligation.

An example is the Pharisee who tithes, and uses his tithing as a means of avoiding caring for his parents.

Another example of Spirit vs. Letter is where the Pharisees sought to condemn Christ and His disciples for shucking grain and eating it on the Sabbath; the Letter of the Law forbid work. His retort was that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Following the Spirit of the Law is not a means to avoiding the Letter of the Law; it is a means of understanding what the real purpose of the Law is, and keeping the Letter of the Law in the context of the two great Commandments: Love God with your whole heart, mind and soul, and the second is Love your neighbor as yourself.

Another example comes from a married couple: the husband works hard and makes a larger than normal pay check: he does so by working a 60 to 80 hour work week. He doesn’t have an affair; he gives his check to his wife; he doesn’t physically or emotionally abuse her; and that is pretty much the sum total of their marriage. He has not broken the Letter of the Law; but to say that he loves her is a joke. He has no emotions for her; she is essentially his maid, nanny of the children he doesn’t see or spend time with, cook and occasional source of sexual relief. He doesn’t question her spending as long as it is not in excess of his income; she has the right clothes, drives the right car, goes to the beauty parlor on a regular basis and takes the children to the proper private school, and he has no clue what happened when he is served with the divorce papers, claiming “What is it she wants?” in total incomprehension. He has followed the Letter of the Law exactly. He has no idea whatsoever what the Spirit of the Law is about.