My dad was a career California Highway Patrol officer. So growing up we had many goofy questions for him regarding driving and the law. "Dad, is it illegal to ___ (fill in the blank)?" His reply was usually, "Illegal is a sick bird," trying to impress upon us a distinction between legality and lawfulness, "do you mean lawful?"
I think I know what he meant, but this distinction needs to be impressed upon American Christians today. Most of the Christian faith has been made "illegal" by politicians, and from my experience, most Christians view "legal" as the same as "lawful," because of their false interpretation of Romans 13. So when good is outlawed, doing good is often not even viewed as good by many people. Just like Jesus and the apostles when they did good but were roundly condemned by legalists for disobeying false authorities.
Steve
ReplyDeleteI like your fathers humour. I can see where you got dagonism from.
However, your distinction is to subtle for me. The oxford dictionary says that both illegal and unlawful can mean ‘contrary to or forbidden by law’, but unlawful has a broader meaning ‘not permitted by rules’: thus handball in soccer is unlawful, but not illegal.
Is that your point.
''Illegal is a sick bird''this is good explaining of illegal. You father is very funney and i agree with him because i have seen many examples about this on EbonyFriends.com.
ReplyDeleteif I understand correctly, unlawful is a violation of the natural rights of humans. And illegalality is a violation of legislation. So what is illegal may not neccesarily be unlawful, and what is legal may be unlawful.
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