Today I want to quote at length from a letter to Evangelicals Now that I have just read.
"My Dad is a preacher and I've heard innumerable sermons about the Lordship of Christ... But my Dad breaks the speed limit. He has a device in his car that tells you where speed cameras are... slow drivers cause accidents... speed limits are guidelines not laws... a good driver is safe at 100 mph.
I tried out these arguments on my driving instructor who told me that whoever said that is a liar and a fool.
My school friend's older brother died driving his new car too fast...
A youth leader I have always admired also disregards the speed limit. He is so cool, sporty and God-fearing that I had somehow overlooked this. He told us that he had recently been caught on a speed camera and said that it was his wife driving not him. What about the ten commandments, I asked, what about not telling lies?
He put his arm round my shoulders. He knew I was upset about my friend. True, he should not have been speeding, but it was quite safe and it was a ridiculous limit for that stretch of road. And he put the blame on his wife because otherwise he would lose his driving license (he'd been caught speeding before). If he couldn't drive, he couldn't do his job. It was the lesser of two evils.
I don't go to church anymore."
I thought it was apt after yesterday's post. I take pride in the fact that when I was a lad there were 7000+ deaths on the roads with only about a million vehicles. Today there are just over 2000 with 16 million vehicles. But when you consider a mother's grief at seeing her son's splattered remains in a smashed car it gives you pause. I broke the speed limit yesterday. I may not have been caught speeding for the past 5 years, but that's not the issue is it? Do you take law-breaking seriously?
2 comments:
I'm an attorney, and the thing that bothers me most about this issue is that I know that those who are obliged to enforce the laws--judges, prosecutors, police, and others in government--are among the worst offenders when it comes to breaking the law.
So, we are left with the problem of how to protect ourselves from our "protectors."
Those who are using the law to exploit us.
I haven't signed on to the Christian injunction to obey all authorities, as written in the Book of Romans and elsewhere.
Neither did John Locke or his intellectual emulators who founded the country I live in.
In other words we are all hypocrites and none of us are willing or capable of obeying the law(s). We criticise others for breaking a law and yet we break the same law or another law ourselves, hypocrites. What did Jesus tell us to do ? Love one another as he loved us. Forgive us for our sins as we forgive the sins of others.
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