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To: BlackElk
If I served on the jury that tried a pope for illegally entering, my vote is not guilty.

So the Pope is above the law. What other laws can he ignore?

383 posted on 01/15/2003 10:31:13 PM PST by Marine Inspector
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To: Marine Inspector
OK, if I served on a jury that tried a pope, I would vote not guilty. That should cover it. My obligation to God and the Church is far, far more important than any commitment to some temporary nation state. Alexander's Greece is no more. The Roman Empire is no more. The Holy Roman Empire is no more. British colonial rule of any part of the United States is no more. The Assyrian Empire is no more. Many French Republics are no more. There will NOT always be an England. Nor will there always be a United States. The US is, by far, the best of these but it too is mortal and will not be around forever. Hopefully, the future holds not a one-world government by the execrable likes of the UN but other arrangements of multiple nations advancing in truth and freedom beyond the point we have achieved.

This will not be prevented by calcifying our own society, however.

As to your original question, the Scriptures record the commandments which include the admonition that their author is the Lord, our God, and that he requires us not to have strange gods before him. Now Zeus is a fantasy and so is the old hummingbird god of Cactus Rock (now Mexico City) and so are all the other pagan gods mere myth. The meaning of the commandment is not to worship our sins and vanities instead of God Himself. In this context, the law of any specific nation or state or locality is also not a god. In those things not immoral in and of themselves or not immoral as occurring in the specific prevailing circumstances, we are enjoined by Romans to obey even the governments of the likes of Hitler or Stalin: (Don't block fire hydrants. Don't spit on the sidewalk. Register your dog. Or whatever.] We ought, for the same reason and others, to obey those laws which prohibit intrinsically evil conduct: Do not Murder. Do not Steal.

Let us not get carried away, however, to believe that immigration is inherently evil, even if prohibited by statute. Immigration and emigration, without the imprimatur of statute or regulation, were going on long before there existed these United States and will continue long afterward.

The same controversy that arose when Christians (Catholics) went to their deaths in the Colisseum rather than sacrifice to Caligula or Nero or Diocletian or their like is the underlying controversy here. Neither the government nor the law is any sort of god much less one which may take the place of the real thing. If I have made myself sufficiently clear, then you understand that my mind will not be changed. You may follow your conscience as you choose. You may not compel mine.

409 posted on 01/17/2003 11:58:02 AM PST by BlackElk (Viva Cristo Rey)
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