I have noted with some sadness the ongoing inquiries into “ethics” violations by members of Congress and even in state and local government it isn’t unusual to find people accusing each other of behaving unethically. What struck me this time around is the use of the defense that “it might be poor judgment, but it’s not illegal.”
Yes, I know we have heard this one before, but it made me start to think about the reasons laws make a very poor basis for setting your ethical standards. Laws are not actually about ethics; they are only meant to restrain unacceptable practices. A law against murder is only necessary to restrain those who might want to kill someone, but that law has no impact at all on the person who has no desire to kill. Laws against drunken driving are not pertinent to the discussion of whether drinking is acceptable or not; they only exist to curb and penalize those whose bad choices (driving while impaired) endanger others.
The apostle Paul wrote that “laws are for the lawless” and that is true. Laws are made to stop behaviors that are unacceptable to society. They aren’t ethical guidelines, though they often are rooted in ethical conduct. I remember a vice president who defended his method of campaign fundraising by saying there were “no laws or relevant legal authority” to rule his acts unacceptable. In the last few years we have heard more and more of the defense that “it isn’t illegal” to justify everything from corporate mismanagement and golden parachutes, to political dirty tricks and personal moral failures. And everyone is paying the price. Our society actually depends on people operating from a higher ethical standard then mere legality to function well and equitably. I am not sure that we need better laws as much as we all need to become better people.
Jesus made the same kind of argument about religious laws as well in the Sermon on the Mount. In that discourse he compared the accepted religious law’s stipulations with a far more demanding assessment of our internal mindset. If the law forbade murder, Jesus asked if we were the kind of person who felt free to hold onto bitter anger and hate. If the law forbade sexual promiscuity, Jesus asked if we dared to examine our attitudes toward women, to ask if we reduced women to mere objects of sexual desire rather than human beings created in the likeness of God. If the law condemned stealing, Jesus asked if we would dare admit that we coveted what others had.
Jesus asked us to learn a higher ethic than mere compliance to the restrictions of laws. And I think that is still what we need to do, especially if we claim the name of Christian. Because the real issue for all of us is, what kind of person am I?
