"I am a free citizen of Narnia." In C.S. Lewis's epic allegory series, (I forget which book.) one little Narnian sums up his freedom, his status, his very identity in those seven simple words.
He did not need to reference-check the latest stacks and stacks of the Federal Register regulations. He did not need to measure his freedom against the U.S. Code volumes upon volumes of statutes, complete with case annotations. He didn't even need to pull out a pocket Constitution. I AM a FREE citizen of Narnia. I am free.
We live under the deadening spectre of what MJM calls "secular legalism." We howl against any whiff of religious legalism, but cannot write enough rules-laws-statutes-regulations-ordinances that we may consult as enforceable authority in every little real of our lives. Put a different way, stuff that we used to look at and say was just dumb will now get you thrown into jail, with your property confiscated as part of the inevitable civil suit that follows.
And Kagan's words smack of this secular legalism. She has lost the understanding expressed by that little Narnian animal-citizen: She IS FREE because she was created that way. They call it Natural Law for a reason.
But, Natural Law recognizes authority beyond the Capitol and the Supreme Court building, and we just can't have that!
I reserve the right to delete patently offensive comments. Or, really, any comment I feel like. Or I might leave a really juicy comment up for private ridicule. Also spammers.
You can always offend hippies in the comment section. Chances are, those will be held up as a proper example...
"I am a free citizen of Narnia."
ReplyDeleteIn C.S. Lewis's epic allegory series, (I forget which book.) one little Narnian sums up his freedom, his status, his very identity in those seven simple words.
He did not need to reference-check the latest stacks and stacks of the Federal Register regulations. He did not need to measure his freedom against the U.S. Code volumes upon volumes of statutes, complete with case annotations. He didn't even need to pull out a pocket Constitution. I AM a FREE citizen of Narnia. I am free.
We live under the deadening spectre of what MJM calls "secular legalism." We howl against any whiff of religious legalism, but cannot write enough rules-laws-statutes-regulations-ordinances that we may consult as enforceable authority in every little real of our lives. Put a different way, stuff that we used to look at and say was just dumb will now get you thrown into jail, with your property confiscated as part of the inevitable civil suit that follows.
And Kagan's words smack of this secular legalism. She has lost the understanding expressed by that little Narnian animal-citizen: She IS FREE because she was created that way. They call it Natural Law for a reason.
But, Natural Law recognizes authority beyond the Capitol and the Supreme Court building, and we just can't have that!