GIVING THE DEVIL THE BENIFIT OF THE LAW

First, I come before you with biretta in hand, to give praise where praise is due.  I do not think that a newspaper (or any news outlet) is good only if it agrees with me, but is good if it informs fairly on all sides.  (A tricky thing to do when you have your own personal beliefs as an editor and you have to make advertisers happy I realize.)  So after yesterday’s rant, I must offer praise to the Akron Beacon Journal for printing another Letter to the Editor in today’s edition written by the Rev. David Durkee, our fair neighbor to the south, that gave a more thorough view of what took place in Washington D.C. this past week and the titled it, “A Message of Life.”  Kudos to you.  Both.

 

IN OTHER NEWS:

 

A while back another article appeared in the paper in which the author, in a passing way, made reference to Scientology (of Tom Cruise fame) and said that it was a fraud and an abuse of the laws of this country that protect religion.  That may or may not be the case (I have no real idea only having a shmattering of an insight about Scientology.)  But we must be careful about deciding who should be afforded benefit of the law.  If they have not broken the law, even if we very much disagree with them, it is dangerous for us to say, “But they are undeserving of this law.”  That may be true.  But what recourse will we have then when a large group of people (we see this happening already) decides that we are unreasonable and that the law written to protect us should not apply to us?

 

Said much better, here is some dialogue from “A Man for All Seasons” in which St. Thomas More is engaged in a conversation with idealistic young man named Roper who would have another man arrested who has not yet broken the law.  (Wife and Daughter are More’s)

 

Speaker	Dialog
Wife	Arrest him!
More	For what?
Wife	He's dangerous!
Roper	For all we know he's a spy!
Daughter	Father, that man's bad!
More	There's no law against that!
Roper	There is, God's law!
More	Then let God arrest him!
Wife	While you talk he's gone!
More	And go he should, if he were the Devil himself, until he broke the law!
Roper	So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
More	Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper	Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More	Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down (and you're just the man to do it!), do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

Quote taken from this site.