MORALITY AND THE LAW
Welcome back to Bud Hancock and another of his thought provoking articles. Gibber! Gibber! Chugley Morality and The Law By Bud Hancock The United States has always been considered a “Nation of Laws”, or a “Nation Under The Rule of Law”. Laws are written and instituted to provide a means of shaping and controlling human behavior. The Model Penal Code in itself is not law, but is only a text designed to stimulate and standardize the penal law of the United States; in addition, there are thousands of individual laws that vary from state to state, but the ultimate law of our land is the United States Constitution. I ask this possibly alarming question: “Should it be?” Can this “Framework of Law” be the best way that American citizens have of determining the proper behavior for them and their families? Since the Constitution originally consisted of seven articles which determined 1), the structure of the federal government, 2) the rights of the various states and 3) a means of ratifying the Constitution by the states, there was little in it to determine what was, and was not, acceptable behavior on the part of the citizens. John Adams, the second President of the United States once said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Why would a beautifully written document such as our Constitution be “inadequate” for the government of immoral people? That document contains ideas that are founded on, and intended to further, good moral behavior. Based on the statement of President Adams, it would appear there were many people even then who would have neither regard not respect for the high-minded ideals of “the law of the land”. In essence, President Adams said it is…