Vol.II No.VI Pg.8
July 1965

Stuff About Things

Robert F. Turner

When Johnny wants to chew on the "' The electric cord, mother says, "No. 220 volts are a bit strong for Johnny's constitution; and besides, he might short-circuit the air cooler.

Johnny stomps and cries. (He is in training for college sit-down strikes) but mother is adamant. There is more than parental authority at stake. The over-all good of the family must be protected. Whether Johnny knows it or not, that "over-all" good includes Johnny's welfare too. He is protected by the law and order against which he vents his spleen.

Neither might nor majority make right. In Wild-West days, so goes the tale, a frontier town was so filled with lawless men that fair trials and justice were possible only through the presence of a bold, fast-drawing Texas Ranger. Then some coward shot the Ranger in the back.

Lawless "buddies" of the assassin threw a drinking party to celebrate; and as the party grew wilder, staged a mock trial of their "deliverer." To make it real--all in fun of course-they decided to hang the murderer. The man had killed the only person in town who could have prevented such a party, so soon the hapless fellow was swinging from a cotton-wood tree. Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Chas. E. Whittaker said recently, "Minority groups, in preaching and practicing defiance of the law, are in fact advocating erosion and destruction of the only structure that can ever protect them from discriminations and abuses by majorities."

Human laws, being subject to error, may need changing. If we respect and are loyal to our country, with its governmental processes, we will seek to change laws within the framework of legal process. To seek to change laws by sheer weight of violation is to deny the merits of government, and adopt the revolutionary process. This will destroy the Ranger we need to protect us from other "stompers."

Government-- not a certain form, but the idea of orderly government, is of God. (Rom.13: 1-7) Paul did not sanction Roman abuses when he wrote this; yet he could say, "Whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." There is basic immorality in the flaunting of authority, and that applies to civil, social, domestic and religious authority.