Saturday, January 12, 2008

Ponderings on Law

This Thursday I attended my first Education and Law class with Dr. Scott Ferrin at BYU. As we discussed the definition and role of law, I reflected on the December 22nd "blog post" about the "rule of law."

During class some new thoughts came to mind that expand upon that "blog post."


  • The purpose of law should have a benefit component. The perfect law giver, God, gave us laws that if obeyed, He in His infinite wisdom knew would bring blessings. We have man made laws such as speed limits for our safety and to protect us. Yet, man is not a perfect law giver. Therefore, he will make laws that are not perfect....and that at times can even be extremely unwise and unjust causing much harm. This should cause us to be leery of focusing only on the "rule of law."

  • Throughout history we have honored people who have "broken the law"--our Founding Fathers, Rosa Parks, Corrie Ten Boom, Schindler, all the people who protected and helped slaves during our history's slavery era, even people from scriptures like the Good Samaritan, and many others.

  • In my religion--Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints--our 12th Article of Faith states: We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

QUESTIONS: When these pondering thoughts from December 22 and today seem to be contradictory, what is the answer? How does one be a law abiding citizen and at the same time not become such a slave to the rule of law that one ends up hurting rather than helping?