An Absolute Necessity

Imagine going into a butcher shop to buy a pound of ground chuck. You do business there all the time and you are familiar with the butcher. After a few friendly comments about the weather and other minor matters, you place your order. He takes the ground chuck from the meat case, places it on the scale, wraps it, and puts the price sticker on the package. The sticker states one pound of ground chuck and gives the price per pound and then the total amount. As the butcher hands the package to you, you realize that it is only half as heavy as it should be. You joke with the butcher, “What did you do, put your thumb on the scale?” He replies, “Now you know me better than that. I’m an honest man.”

You know that the butcher is an honest man but you purchased a pound of meat and have about eight ounces to show for it. You press the issue. “Are the scales correct?” He assures you that they are and that he adjusted them this morning. He has pushed you to your limit and you don’t have time for practical jokes. You insist that he has shorted you, giving you only half an order and charging you full price. He finally smiles and explains, “Now I understand your problem. You are thinking that a pound is equal to sixteen ounces. I felt like a pound should be eight ounces today. Tomorrow it may be four and the day after that twenty. It all depends on what I think it should be on any given day. If I get real ambitious I may change it several times a day.”

Now imagine watching your favorite football team playing their rival. Soon into the game you notice that the officials are using two sets of chains to measure first downs. One set is only about seven yards long instead of the standard ten yards. The short set is being used when the rivals have the ball. After a great deal of commotion on the side lines and in the stands, the officials make an announcement. They clearly explain that for the rival team a yard will be equal to two feet instead of the normal three. As coaches argue and the fans boo, the officials give their rationale, “One team is much better than the other so to balance the playing field, we have decided to make a yard equal to two feet for the one team so we can make the game more even.”

Imagine the chaos and anger if there were no absolute standard of weights and measurements and every man did what was right in his own eyes. Society would break down if there were no such standards.

Now imagine a society where there are no moral or legal standards; a society where every man did what was right in his own eyes or where the individual with the greatest power or the most charismatic personality made arbitrary decisions as to what was right or wrong, good or bad. It would be a society where the demagogue could enlist the mob to carry out his whims or lead a military to despotism.

The need for legal and moral standards for the survival of a society, especially a society where the rights of the individuals of that society are not abrogated by the agenda of any person or group within it, should be obvious. During the formation of our nation and for this reason John Adams noted that we are a nation of laws not of men.

Such emphasis on the importance of law as an absolute standard for the stability of society was not novel to the founders of this nation. This concept is found in Jewish law and Greek and Roman philosophy. Plato stated, “Where the law is subject to some other authority and has none of its own, the collapse of the state, in my view, is not far off; but if law is the master of the government and the government is its slave, then the situation is full of promise and men enjoy all the blessings that the gods shower on a state.”

Aristotle later said, “Law should govern, and those in power should be servants of the laws.” In more modern times John Locke, Samuel Rutherford, and Montesquieu elaborated on these basic principles. Thomas Paine wrote in his pamphlet, Common Sense, "In America, the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.”

No one should be considered above the law and none beneath it. Lady Justice (Justitia) is most often depicted with a set of scales typically suspended from her left hand, upon which she measures the strengths of a case's support and opposition. She is also often seen carrying a double-edged sword in her right hand, symbolizing the power of Reason and Justice, which may be wielded either for or against any party. Lady Justice is often depicted wearing a blindfold. This is done in order to indicate that justice is, or should be, meted out objectively, without fear or favor, regardless of identity, money, power, or weakness: blind justice and blind impartiality.
The Founders of the United States were wise when they established the standard of law for the American society. They also showed wisdom when they made an absolute standard for law in our nation when they wrote the Constitution of the United States. This Constitution put great limits on the power of government because of the capricious and oft immoral nature of people, especially those who gravitate to positions of power. It was and is so designed that neither other law nor mandate of any individual or group had or has the authority to, under any circumstances, abrogate the rights of the citizens of this society. The Constitution of the United States is the absolute standard of American jurisprudence and must be recognized and followed as such. “A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.” (John Adams)

The foundation of United States legal code was built on that of an even higher standard. It was the standard based upon Judeo-Christian values. Again citing John Adams:

“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence, were ... the general principles of Christianity, in which all those sects were united, and the general principles of English and American liberty, in which all those young men united, and which had united all parties in America, in majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her independence. Now I will avow, that I then believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature and our terrestrial, mundane system.”

The Founding Fathers of this country could not nor would not divorce the standards of Christian faith from the standards for a just and noble nation.

In the next article we will examine the necessity for absolute standards in the church and in our personal lives.