The Law vs God

I had a lot of yard work to catch up on today. Part of it included burning logs from a tree I cut down several years ago. For me there is something pensive about sitting around a fire. Every now and then, I catch myself starring into the fire and wondering how long I have been in that trance. That is what happened to me today. When I came out of my trance, all I could remember was that I was thinking about Biblical Law.

 I really do not know a lot about the idea of Biblical Law. I mean it seems to me that it would have to derive from a religious book. The only other comparison I could make was to Sharia Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia) from when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan.  Then I thought to myself that is not Biblical Law that is Muslim Law. I could not see how Biblical law and Muslim Law could be the same thing. I mean, they are both Religious Law based on the Holy Book of that religion and the prevailing religious views of that culture.

“The tenants of Biblical law are better known as the Ten Commandments. Declare the Lord, who brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, to be God. Prohibit having other gods before the Lord, and making or worshiping idols. It threatens punishment for those who reject the Lord and promises love for those who love him. It forbids misuse of the Lord's name. It demands observance of the Sabbath and honoring one's parents. It prohibits killing, adultery, theft, false testimony, and coveting of one's neighbor's goods.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments) While some of these tenants make it into our civil and criminal law, some do not. For example, in this country you can’t go to jail for not going to church on Sunday.

So how did we end up with our modern legal system? Where do our modern laws come from? On November 21, 1620, forty-one adult male passengers signed the Mayflower Compact. The compact served as a device to preserve order and establish rules for self-government. The signers agreed to combine themselves into a "civil Body Politick" that would enact and obey "just and equal laws" that were made for the "general good of the colony." This commitment to justice and equality would carry over into many later documents, including the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the first ten Amendments to the Constitution. (http://law.jrank.org/pages/11664/Mayflower-Compact.html) I think the operative words here are, “preserve order “, “just and equal”, and “general good”.

Some out there are not happy that our Bible is not the basis for our system of laws. One of these is the “dominionists”.

 “Dominists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionism) seek to re-interpret the U.S. Constitution so that it conforms to their Biblical Worldview. Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel declares it's time to get Jesus into the judicial mix. "Now we're working to establish Liberty University School of Law, which will open its doors in August 2004. We are going to teach lawyers to think in a biblical, Christian world view."  According to dominionists, the Bible has supremacy over the U.S. Constitution. In a 2002 address to the Society of Catholic Social Scientists in Ann Arbor, Mich., federal judge James Leon Holmes, affirmed the supremacy of the Bible: Christianity transcends the political order and cannot be subordinated to the political order. The principle of separation of church and state has no place in his vision for the future:  The final reunion of Church and state will take place at the end of time, when Christ will claim definitive political power of all creation, inaugurating an entirely new society based on the supernatural.” (http://www.theocracywatch.org/biblical_law2.htm)

Then there is the “Federalists Society.” The Federalist Society formed twenty years ago in reaction to the powers the Supreme Court was granting the federal government. It is a network of lawyers, elected officials and scholars who want to free corporations from government regulations. It is hostile to civil rights, environmental protections, worker safety laws, a separation between church and state and more. (http://www.theocracywatch.org/biblical_law2.htm)

Some prominent leaders of the Religious Right play a dominant role in the Federalist Society. For example former President of the Christian Coalition, Donald Hodel is a board member. Twenty four of President Bush's top cabinet members and most of his court nominations are members of the Federalist Society. The list includes John Ashcroft, Attorney General; Spencer Abraham, Secretary of Energy; Gail Norton, Secretary of the Interior; and Theodore Olson, Solicitor General. Other notable members are Justices Scalia and Thomas, Orrin Hatch, Kenneth Starr. (http://www.theocracywatch.org/biblical_law2.htm)

Then I remembered that what made me think of all of this. It was a memory I had of an interview on TV. It was at one of those “mega”, “colossal” rallies in Washington D.C. The interviewer asked a passerby about “pro-life” thinking and the Constitution. His response was that the Constitution was “mans” Law and that “Biblical Law” always “trumps” “mans” Law.

 Well, there you have it. Should our country’s laws come from our Constitution or “our” bible? Or put another way, should we give up our democracy and our civil and criminal law and become a theocracy with Biblical laws? If all our laws are based on the Bible, does that make it a form of Sharia law? If that’s the case what would be the difference between us and the Muslims?