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Reflections From Faith and History A Nation of Laws or of Men? -by Jeff Olson The cornerstone of individual rights in the American founding was two-fold. First - by virtue of his origin in the image of God, man holds a special place among the Created Order, as a free moral agent with the capacity for faith, reason, and redemption; Second – our nation’s Founders understood that human rights are pre-political, endowed to us by our Creator (as articulated in our Declaration of Independence). Therefore government, as one of God’s ordained institutions, is necessary to protect and preserve those rights. Inherent in this is the assurance that God, not government (or man), is the author and final arbiter of truth and justice, and it is His law, Natural Law, that is the constant and unchanging source from
which government receives its moral clarity and legitimacy. Without Natural Law, either in its application within human laws or within the ethical perceptions or norms governing people’s lives, no law is superior to that of the state. While Natural Law and human law are not one in the same, it is necessary that the latter appeal to the former for its inspiration and sustenance so that a secure and lasting moral and political order can be achieved. This I believe is what has given America’s civil rights movement its strongest validation and most salient quality, and what I have to think ultimately motivated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his quest for racial equality. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King
expressed his belief that there are two kinds of laws: just laws and unjust laws. A person has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws, but conversely one has a moral responsibility to challenge unjust laws and work to get them changed. Upon what basis is a law just or unjust? King stated that “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God and an unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.” In quoting St. Augustine, King wrote “An unjust law is no law at all,” and in quoting St. Thomas Aquinas, “An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.” Without a transcendent standard, justice is arbitrary. King understood and confronted some of the great questions of his time, our time, and for all time in America: Is law rooted in truth? Does law originate from an eternal and enduring moral authority? Is law transcendent, immutable, and
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morally binding? Or, is law merely a subjective and expedient means of political gain and social engineering to be selectively obeyed and enforced in serving the self-interest and agendas of those in power at the expense of those whom they are elected to serve? Is America a nation of laws or a nation of men? The answers we choose will determine the future of ordered liberty in America. January 15th would have been Martin Luther King Jr.’s 90th birthday, thus it is fitting that we recognize what may be his greatest legacy: to have brought these issues and their questions and answers to the forefront of the public square and political forum; that they may always serve to remind us of America’s foundational premise of truth and justice rooted in the law of God, and that it is His design that we live in harmony with the moral law as God established it and as He brought it to fulfillment through Jesus Christ.
Polk County Circuit Court Arraignments The office of Prosecuting Attorney Andy Riner submitted three arraignments from the Polk County Circuit Court Criminal Division. Cheyenne Smith, age 24, was charged with possession of methamphetamine with the purpose to deliver. A class “B” felony. And a second count of possession of drug paraphernalia, a class “D” felony.
Eric D Revels, age 34, was charged with theft by receiving of property of more than $5,000 dollars and less than $25,000 dollars in value. A class “C” felony. Jerrin Heath Vaught, age 22, was charged with two counts of battery in the second degree. It is alleged that the defendant did recklessly cause physical injury to two other people while in operation of a motor vehicle,
while intoxicated or having an alcohol concentration of eight hundredths or more constituting a class “D” felony. These are the arraignments submitted to us from the Polk County Circuit Court. All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. The Polk County Pulse will print a retraction for charges dropped. Proper paperwork must be submitted to our offices do so.
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