Jan 12
23
What is Natural Law?
“’Part of us is claimed by our country, part by our parents, part by our friends.’ (Roman. Ibid. i. vii)” cited in The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis.
Is Nationalism a Natural Law Ethic?
To his friend, Crito, Socrates, who has been condemned, answers:
“Suppose the Laws of Athens to come and remonstrate with him: they will ask, ‘Why does he seek to overturn them?’ and if he replies, ‘They have injured him,’ will not the Laws answer, ‘Yes, but was that the agreement? Has he any objection to make to them which would justify him in overturning them? Was he not brought into the world and educated by their help, and are they not his parents? He might have left Athens and gone where he pleased, but he has lived there for seventy years more constantly than any other citizen.’ Thus he has clearly shown that he acknowledged the agreement, which he cannot now break without dishonour to himself and danger to his friends.” (Crito by Plato. Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
The abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, taunted that “the Union is but another name for the iron reign of the slave-power.” He saw that the U.S. Constitution could be called upon, at any instant, “to suppress a general insurrection of the slaves. This relationship is criminal, ‘is full of danger, IT MUST BE BROKEN UP.” (Grimke, William Lloyd Garrison, p. 169).
“Henceforth it (the Constitution) is dead to me, and I to it. I withdraw all profession of allegiance to it, and all my voluntary efforts to sustain it. The burdens that it lays upon me, while it is held up by other, I shall endeavor to bear patiently, yet acting with reference to a higher law, and distinctly declaring that, while I retain my own liberty, I will be a party to no compact which helps to rob any other man of his.” (Grimke, p. 149).
Is the appeal to natural law ethics an effort to save America for the benefit of Christianity or to save Christianity for the benefit of America?