So law is conditional upon need?
That means I can break into your house, take your money, your clothes, your food, even possibly your life—as long as I feel I have enough of a ‘need.’
That way lies anarchy.
Are you proposing anarchy?
Do you belive in objective right and wrong?
Or is everything relative—to perceived ‘need?’
I never said feelings were the arbiter of need. I’m also not sure what possible need you have of my life. If you were starving and broke into my house for food, or without clothing and tried to steal mine, though, I wouldn’t press charges. How could I? Tell yourself the truth. If a starving person did that to us, the crime would shame us, not the thief.
Jesus said "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven…
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”
Matt. 5: 17-20, 38-42
While we are talking about law and anarchy, though, what about the law that “
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me?” When the Lord described who would be condemned and who would not, he didn’t mention theft once, did he? Not one single time. When he was confronted with the adulterous woman, the one whom the law said ought to be stoned, he refused to condemn her, too. As he said: he didn’t come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it.
What conclusion might we draw from that, concerning the heirarchy of law that ought to be in play here?
Should we write and observe our laws only with concern to how they apply to what we feel entitled to have out of this life, and let the road to hell be as broad and unmarked as we can possibly make it? This is a democracy, after all. What the laws say is on our heads, too. (I tremble to write that.)
The hard truth is that bishops may only recognizing that, in terms of the laws that really count, anarchy is what we already have!
How’s that for objective?