Howard C. Wilkinson - "Law and Order" (October 25, 1970)

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	(choir singing)	0:05
	(choir singing continues)	2:07
	(organ music)	4:16
	("A Mighty Fortress is Our God")	4:19
	(congregation singing)	5:04
	(congregation singing continues)	6:16
	♪ Amen ♪	8:27
-	If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves	8:43
	and the truth is not in us.	8:49
	Therefore let us offer unto God a unison prayer	8:53
	of confession and for pardon.	8:57
	Let us pray.	9:01
	Oh righteous Father, before whose holiness	9:04
	our hearts tremble, we humbly confess the many sins	9:08
	with which we have dishonored thy name,	9:12
	our shortcomings in faith, obedience, and love.	9:16
	We confess that we have failed to love our enemies	9:21
	and to do good to those who hate us.	9:24
	We have pointed to the spec in our brother's eye,	9:28
	but have not noticed the log in our own eye.	9:32
	We often have been behaved as badly	9:36
	as those who are not of the household of faith.	9:38
	We pray thee to forgive us our sins	9:42
	and to enable us to make a gracious witness	9:46
	for Christ in the world.	9:48
	We pray in His name, amen.	9:51
	Hear these words of assurance of forgiveness	9:56
	as they are recorded by the Psalmist.	10:00
	"The Lord is gracious and merciful,	10:04
	slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.	10:08
	The Lord redeems the life of his servants.	10:15
	None of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.	10:21
	Therefore let us be of good courage."	10:28
	(organ music)	10:35
	(choir singing)	11:22
	(choir singing continues)	12:46
-	Our scripture lesson this morning is taken	15:31
	from the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke,	15:34
	beginning with the 37th verse:	15:37
	"'Judge not and you will not be judged.	15:41
	Condemn not and you will not be condemned.	15:44
	Forgive and you will be forgiven.	15:48
	Give and it will be given to you,	15:51
	good measure, pressed down, shaken together,	15:54
	running over will be put into your lap.	15:57
	For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.'	16:01
	He also told him a parable.	16:05
	'Can a blind man lead a blind man?	16:08
	Will they not both fall into a pit?	16:11
	Why do you see the spec that is in your brother's eye,	16:14
	but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?	16:18
	Or how can you say to your brother,	16:22
	'Brother, let me take out the spec that is in your eye,'	16:25
	when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye?	16:28
	You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye	16:33
	and then you will see clearly to take out the spec	16:38
	that is in your brother's eye.'"	16:41
	Here ends the scripture lesson.	16:43
	(organ music)	16:47
	("Gloria Patri")	16:50
	♪ Glory be to the Father ♪	16:56
	♪ And to the Son and to the Holy Ghost ♪	17:01
	♪ As it was in the beginning ♪	17:09
	♪ Is now and ever shall be ♪	17:14
	♪ World without end, amen, amen ♪	17:19
-	The Lord be with you.	17:30
	Let us pray.	17:33
	Oh God our Father, merciful and gracious,	17:40
	hear are the thanksgivings with which we come	17:45
	before thy throne.	17:47
	For the wonder of their beauty manifest in the world,	17:50
	for thy wisdom inspiring the works of men,	17:55
	and for thy Fatherly love shown forth to us in Christ Jesus,	17:59
	praise be to thee oh God.	18:05
	For any happiness in our earthly life,	18:09
	for home and school and friends,	18:13
	and for the joy of loving and being loved,	18:17
	praise be to thee oh God.	18:21
	For the grace to worship thee,	18:26
	for the right to pray to thee,	18:29
	and for thine answers to our prayers,	18:33
	praise be to thee oh God.	18:37
	But above all for Jesus Christ thy Son,	18:41
	the Word incarnate who came to end	18:45
	the reign of sin and death	18:49
	and to bring in the reign of righteousness and life,	18:52
	praise be to the oh God.	18:56
	And on this Reformation Sunday,	19:02
	let us pray for the whole state of Christ's Church.	19:05
	Most gracious Father, we humbly beseech thee	19:11
	for the holy Catholic Church,	19:15
	fill it with all truth, in all truth, with all peace.	19:19
	Where it is corrupt, purge it.	19:25
	Where it is in error, direct it.	19:29
	Where it is right, strengthen and confirm it.	19:34
	Where it is divided and rent asunder,	19:39
	do thou make up the breaches in it for the sake of life Son,	19:43
	whose church it is.	19:50
	Let us offer a prayer of intercession	19:53
	for the United Nations.	19:55
	Oh heavenly Father, we thank thee	19:58
	for those who out of the bitter memories of strife and loss	20:00
	conceived a more excellent way for the nations of the earth	20:05
	whereby justice and order may be maintained	20:11
	and differences of people may be resolved in equity.	20:16
	We pray thee to help men of goodwill,	20:21
	to establish their purpose on sure foundations.	20:25
	Trust for their labors	20:31
	that thy will may be done on earth in love and in peace.	20:34
	You've been asked to offer a pair of intercession	20:42
	for the sick.	20:45
	Oh Lord who dost feel the pain of the world,	20:48
	look down upon all sick and suffering persons,	20:51
	old and young, and fold them with thy love	20:56
	that in the midst of pain, they may find thy presence.	21:01
	To doctors and nurses,	21:06
	grant considerate hearts and healing hands.	21:08
	And if it be thy will, give health again in body and soul	21:13
	for thy tender mercy's sake.	21:19
	And let us offer a prayer of intercession	21:24
	for the families in our community,	21:27
	into whose home's death and anxiety have come.	21:31
	Oh God who healest the broken in heart	21:37
	and bindest up their wounds,	21:40
	look down in tender pity and compassion upon thy servants,	21:43
	whose joy has been turned to into mourning.	21:48
	Leave them not comfortless,	21:52
	but grant that they may be drawn closer one to another	21:56
	by their common sorrow.	21:59
	As thou has given them this new tie	22:03
	to bind them to the world unseen,	22:05
	so grant unto them that where their treasure is,	22:08
	there may their hearts be also.	22:12
	So dwell with them and be their God	22:17
	until the day break and the shadows flee away.	22:23
	And let us offer a prayer of supplication for ourselves.	22:30
	Oh God, amid the darkness of this world in the ignorance	22:35
	of our own minds and in the feebleness of our efforts	22:39
	after truth, we so often lose the way.	22:43
	Thou who art the way, the truth, and the life,	22:51
	show us the way that leads to thy truth,	22:55
	that knowing the truth, we may inherit life,	23:01
	life that is everlasting through Jesus Christ our Lord	23:05
	who taught his disciples to pray saying,	23:13
	Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name,	23:18
	thy kingdom come, thy will be done	23:23
	on earth as it is in heaven.	23:27
	Give us this day our daily bread	23:30
	and forgive us our trespasses	23:33
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	23:35
	And lead us not into temptation,	23:39
	but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom	23:42
	and the power and the glory forever, amen.	23:46
-	Before coming in here, I was having a little trouble	24:11
	getting my watch to go.	24:17
	David Vaughn quickly offered me his.	24:20
	Though he normally is a generous man,	24:24
	in this particular instance,	24:28
	I thought his generosity was prompted	24:30
	by considerations of self-interest,	24:32
	so I shall be watched by two watches	24:35
	as I proceed through this homiletical effort,	24:39
	not counting yours, of course.	24:44
	The subject which this fall in the United States	24:50
	is being discussed more widely than any other topic	24:54
	is that of law and order.	24:59
	A number of our leading governmental figures,	25:03
	political spokesman and editorial writers,	25:07
	have asserted that the issues involved with obedience to law	25:09
	and the preservation of order	25:14
	are indeed the most pressing issues of our time.	25:16
	What do we mean by that phrase, "law and order"?	25:23
	As I understand the meaning,	25:28
	it is that we are a people whose life together	25:30
	is structured by a number of things, one of which is law.	25:33
	Not all the fabric of our communal life is made up of law,	25:39
	but some of it is.	25:42
	And as a group, we expect every individual	25:44
	to be obedient to those patterns	25:48
	which have been crystallized into law.	25:51
	For example, in a small town it may be a custom	25:55
	for almost everyone to go to church on Sunday,	25:59
	but every citizen is free to follow that custom	26:04
	or not to follow it without being penalized.	26:07
	There's no law about it,	26:11
	but in that same community, it may also be customary	26:15
	that individuals do not disrupt the worship of those	26:19
	who choose to attend church.	26:22
	And this custom may have had a penalty	26:25
	attached to non-compliance.	26:29
	That is, through their government,	26:33
	the citizens may have decided to set up a legal prohibition	26:34
	against breaking that particular custom	26:38
	and have established machinery	26:42
	to punish those who are disobedient.	26:44
	So in any organization of people, whether a fraternity,	26:49
	a city, a state, or a nation,	26:54
	the people divide their behavior patterns	26:58
	into two groupings, one voluntary, the other compulsory.	27:01
	I have known some Duke fraternities to make it a law	27:08
	that every member must attend	27:11
	every official meeting of the frat.	27:13
	A penalty in the form of a $5 fine was levied	27:16
	against any brother who missed a meeting.	27:20
	There were other behavior patterns involved	27:24
	in the life of the frat.	27:26
	Some of them were regarded as being very important,	27:28
	but only those which the group considered essential	27:31
	were made into law.	27:36
	Hence, in a political democracy,	27:39
	law is the decisions which the majority have made	27:42
	concerning certain types of behavior	27:46
	which are to be required of all citizens,	27:49
	whether in the majority or in the minority.	27:52
	When a person violates a law, whatever else he is doing,	27:56
	he at least is saying that he will not in this instance	28:01
	behave the way the majority have said	28:05
	everyone must be behave.	28:07
	When we move from the relative simplicity	28:12
	of a local fraternity to the relative complexity	28:14
	of a national government,	28:17
	the processes by which the majority makes its laws	28:19
	becomes correspondingly complex.	28:23
	And our political science department	28:27
	can help us understand these process.	28:28
	But the essential fact to remember is that in a democracy,	28:32
	the concept of law is basically that it is what the majority	28:36
	has declared to be essential.	28:42
	You can see right away that there's a fundamental difference	28:50
	between the moral value of law in a democracy	28:53
	and law in a dictatorship.	28:57
	In Hitler's Germany, law was whatever Hitler wanted.	29:00
	If a citizen violated a law,	29:05
	he had no way to know whether he was going against the will	29:07
	of the majority or not.	29:10
	Indeed, at times, so I've been told,	29:14
	one had the feeling in Germany	29:18
	that to break one of Hitler's laws	29:19
	might have been what the majority desired.	29:22
	So today a citizen of China has no way to be sure	29:26
	whether Mao's laws correspond with the wishes	29:30
	of the Chinese population.	29:32
	Or in Cuba, whether Castro's laws would be freely ratified	29:35
	by the majority of the Cubans who managed to survive	29:39
	Che Guevara's firing squads.	29:42
	Men of goodwill around the world actually honor	29:46
	a long list of names of men who became heroes	29:52
	precisely because they defied the laws of Hitler.	29:56
	We think of Martin Niemöller,	30:01
	who has preached in this pulpit,	30:02
	and of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,	30:05
	the Bishop of Bova, Bishop Beargrow, Professor Henry Kramer,	30:06
	Patriarch Guillo, Cardinal Van Roy, and Kaj Munk,	30:11
	among many others.	30:16
	These men became heroes in the eyes of decent people	30:19
	because they defied laws which were against the freedom	30:22
	and welfare of the majority,	30:27
	laws which represented only the will	30:30
	of a dictatorial minority.	30:33
	On the other hand, in a political democracy,	30:37
	law represents what most of the people believe is essential	30:41
	and it is therefore morally binding upon citizens	30:46
	to obey the law.	30:49
	This is especially true,	30:53
	seems to me in the United States,	30:54
	where well-oiled machinery exists for changing laws	30:56
	which are found to be bad	31:00
	and where freedom of speech and press	31:02
	make it relatively easy for any citizen	31:05
	to express his views concerning laws	31:08
	he believes ought to be changed.	31:10
	Now the alternative, the alternative to obeying the law	31:13
	in a political democracy is to assert the will	31:19
	of the individual or the minority	31:24
	over against the will of the group as a whole.	31:27
	If I disobey a law which has been made by all of us here	31:31
	in the chapel, I am in effect saying that I don't care	31:34
	about your decision, I will do just as I please.	31:38
	There are two circumstances in which,	31:47
	even in a political democracy,	31:50
	a citizen may break a law in good conscience.	31:52
	If he firmly believes a particular law in a city or state,	31:57
	for example, is contrary to the basic law of the nation,	32:01
	he may conscientiously break that law in an effort	32:07
	to have this law tested in the courts	32:10
	and its constitutionality established or rejected.	32:14
	However, such a person must be entirely willing	32:19
	to suffer the legal consequences	32:23
	if the particular law he has broken	32:26
	is found to be constitutional.	32:29
	If I were to refuse to pay my income taxes	32:32
	in order to have the constitutionality	32:35
	of the tax law tested,	32:36
	I should be willing to endure the penalties	32:39
	of not paying proper taxes	32:42
	if that law is found to be constitutional.	32:44
	The second circumstance in which a citizen	32:51
	may abrogate the law in good conscience	32:53
	is when he sincerely and inescapably is convinced	32:56
	that a part part law would require him to do something	32:59
	basically contrary to the will of God.	33:04
	When the Apostle Peter told the high priest,	33:09
	"We must obey God rather than man,"	33:12
	he spoke for all the great religions of the world.	33:15
	Henry David Thoreau wrote that "if a man does not keep pace	33:20
	with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears	33:23
	a different drummer.	33:26
	Let him step to the music which he hears,	33:28
	however measured or far away."	33:31
	Sometimes a person may find no fault	33:35
	with the political process by which a law came into being,	33:38
	and indeed he may affirm that it represents	33:42
	the expressed will of the majority in his nation,	33:45
	yet he finds that specific law unacceptable	33:49
	in terms of his loyalty to God	33:52
	as he understands that loyalty.	33:54
	In such an instance,	33:58
	this individual may conscientiously disobey that law	34:00
	provided he makes clear the reason for his disobedience	34:06
	provided he acknowledges the political propriety of the law	34:11
	provided further that he affirms the correctness	34:16
	of the penalty which he then must suffer under the law	34:20
	because of his conscientious disobedience.	34:26
	All of this is important in itself	34:30
	because of what that point of view expresses,	34:33
	but it is preliminary to our consideration	34:38
	of the very first thing mentioned in this sermon,	34:41
	that is the phenomenon that a number of our political	34:45
	and governmental leaders are currently discussing the issues	34:48
	of law and order and what they are saying about it	34:52
	merits our consideration	34:56
	in the light of the preliminary remarks I have just made.	34:58
	The chief point which these spokesman have been making	35:04
	with the greatest frequency and with the loudest emphasis	35:07
	is that our American college campuses	35:12
	are now two often scenes of lawlessness.	35:15
	Many college students are breaking the law	35:19
	and disturbing the order which lawful processes provide.	35:22
	Here are two samples of what they're referring to.	35:27
	On the eighth of this month,	35:31
	a bomb was planted in a university building at Berkeley.	35:34
	Had it not been discovered and removed in time,	35:38
	it would've destroyed a building	35:41
	erected by the University of California	35:42
	for the purpose of aiding in the education	35:45
	of many thousands of students.	35:47
	The overwhelming majority of people have voted	35:50
	to make such destruction as that illegal.	35:53
	On April 24, a fire bomb severely damaged	35:59
	the Research Center for Advanced Study	36:02
	of Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University	36:04
	and in so doing destroyed the lifetime research	36:08
	of a visiting professor of sociology	36:11
	from the University of Delhi,	36:14
	along with much research material of nine other scholars,	36:17
	whose work would greatly have benefited mankind,	36:20
	had it not been burned up.	36:23
	Well, there's a law against that kind of activity	36:27
	and violation of it carries a very stiff penalty.	36:30
	The people as a whole are not willing to leave matters	36:34
	of this sort to mere custom or to personal volunteerism	36:38
	or to deans of students who hopefully can coax	36:43
	recalcitrants into being nice.	36:46
	The majority has long held this variety of behavior	36:50
	shall be under the rule of law.	36:53
	The college students who are urged onto violence	36:57
	by Peking's Little Lord Fauntleroys	37:00
	and by other apostles of hate,	37:02
	may know in advance that a high price must be paid	37:05
	for calculated destruction.	37:08
	The willingness of a small minority of students	37:14
	to violate the law on campuses across the nation	37:17
	does not present a pretty picture.	37:20
	However, it probably is the least ugly picture	37:24
	in the entire album of pictures	37:29
	which portray the violation of law in these United States.	37:31
	A worse picture was shown to the world last March	37:37
	when tens of thousands of adult American citizens	37:40
	brazenly ignored not only the law	37:45
	which had been passed by Congress,	37:48
	but also defied the federal courts	37:51
	and the national Executive administration as well.	37:53
	It was a massive total defiance	37:57
	of the entire federal government.	38:01
	Who were these lawless people?	38:04
	College students?	38:07
	Absolutely not.	38:10
	They were adult employees of the US Post Office,	38:13
	your friendly postman, if you please.	38:18
	Notwithstanding the fact that federal law	38:23
	specifically forbids civil service employees	38:25
	to strike against any federal agency,	38:29
	tens of thousands of them in cities	38:32
	across the North and Midwest did go on strike	38:35
	in full knowledge that they were in open defiance	38:39
	of the federal law.	38:42
	The strike concerned wages.	38:45
	Their average pay was about $3 an hour	38:48
	and they said when they went out on strike	38:50
	that they wouldn't deliver the mail again	38:52
	until they got a 40% increase salary.	38:53
	It is worth noting here today that more post offices	38:58
	were crippled by this adult law-breaking	39:02
	than there have been campuses crippled	39:07
	by student law-breaking.	39:09
	And certainly far more individual adults violated the law	39:12
	in that episode than the total of students involved	39:15
	in campus shenanigans to date.	39:20
	The adult postal employees knew they would be disobeying	39:24
	the law when they voted the strike and they persisted	39:27
	in the strike even after a federal court injunction	39:30
	had been issued and after the Nixon administration	39:32
	had ordered them back to work in Executive language.	39:35
	The New York Times, on March 19,	39:39
	editorially asked this question:	39:41
	"What hope can there be for fostering respect for law	39:44
	and democratic processes on campus and elsewhere	39:48
	if federal employees disregard their oath	39:52
	to stay on the job?"	39:55
	I wish I could now go on to add that this postal strike	40:00
	was the most extreme example	40:03
	of adult lawlessness in America.	40:04
	Unhappily, it is not.	40:07
	In 1954, the highest judicial authority in our government	40:12
	made it entirely clear that racial segregation	40:16
	in the public schools is illegal,	40:19
	that it is an act to defiance of the Constitution	40:22
	of the United States to maintain a public school	40:25
	on a racially segregated basis.	40:28
	Because this ruling would require that some adjustments	40:32
	be made in buildings, in teachers, in buses, et cetera,	40:35
	the court did not require the schools	40:39
	be totally desegregated overnight,	40:41
	but it did soon specify that desegregation should go forward	40:45
	with all deliberate speed.	40:49
	Well, at what speed has it gone forward?	40:53
	How have the white parents and white adult members	41:01
	of school boards proceeded in their devotion	41:04
	to obeying the law?	41:06
	Many have obeyed.	41:10
	In numerous communities,	41:13
	plans were soon made and carried out in exemplary fashion	41:14
	to comply with the law.	41:18
	But alas, in thousands of others,	41:21
	there was monotonous delay and imaginative procrastination.	41:23
	15 years after the 1954 ruling,	41:30
	Time Magazine reported on September 5th, 1969,	41:35
	that there still were 1,534 school districts	41:40
	in Southern states which had not desegregated.	41:46
	This was not a report on racial balance,	41:51
	but on simple desegregation.	41:54
	1,534 school boards had not discovered a way to desegregate	41:57
	their schools in 15 years,	42:03
	even though they knew they were in defiance of the law.	42:05
	What would you expect students to learn about obedience	42:11
	to the law if they receive their education in those schools?	42:15
	At a time when some college students	42:25
	are being nationally chastised for having broken the law,	42:27
	it is embarrassingly awkward for adults	42:32
	to have to acknowledge that a much greater number	42:35
	of adult postal workers and white adult parents	42:39
	and school board members	42:42
	have intentionally violated the law.	42:43
	But perhaps the most painful acknowledgement of all	42:48
	is the fact that the adult man who has chosen to condemn	42:53
	the students the most vehemently and in the most places	42:57
	and on the most occasions and has denounced them	43:01
	as being the prime example of American lawlessness,	43:05
	is himself in serious need of repair at this very point	43:09
	and is one of our top national leaders.	43:14
	I refer, of course, to Mr. Spiro Agnew,	43:18
	Vice President of the United States.	43:21
	"Law and order," he says,	43:25
	"is the chief issue before the nation today."	43:27
	What is his own performance in that vital area?	43:31
	Here are a few matters to consider.	43:36
	On October 14, many of you read, as I did,	43:39
	a column written about the honorable Mr. Agnew	43:43
	by the usually reliable Jack Anderson.	43:45
	That column was published in a local newspaper.	43:48
	His column is also published in newspapers	43:53
	from coast to coast and in every state.	43:55
	In this particular column,	43:59
	Anderson charged that when Mr. Agnew	44:01
	took his political campaign to Las Vegas recently,	44:03
	an impressive assortment of federal and state laws	44:07
	were violated by those who prepared	44:12
	for the Agnew political visit	44:15
	and that these violations were at points calculated	44:17
	to aggrandize Mr. Agnew and the political candidates	44:21
	on who specific behalf he had made the trip.	44:24
	Anderson publicly offered to furnish the Justice Department	44:28
	with the evidence of the violations	44:33
	and he challenged Mr. Agnew to instruct that department	44:36
	to prosecute the alleged offenders.	44:39
	Since then, 11 days have gone by	44:43
	and I have seen no reply to this from Mr. Agnew.	44:46
	Furthermore, there are law and order questions	44:51
	for Mr. Agnew arising from the school	44:53
	desegregation situation in the South.	44:56
	There are law and order questions for Mr. Agnew	44:59
	growing out of the postal workers strike.	45:02
	Let's take a brief look at the latter.	45:04
	Federal law prohibits federal employees	45:08
	from striking a governmental agency,	45:11
	as has already been noted.	45:14
	But federal law also provides that those who do so strike	45:16
	shall be fined up to $1,000 and/or imprisoned up to a year,	45:22
	and the law also specifies that their employer,	45:28
	the government, shall discharge them	45:31
	from their federal jobs.	45:35
	The law prohibits a man who has struck	45:39
	against a government agency from holding a government job.	45:42
	Now since Mr. Agnew is the number two man	45:47
	in this government, it seems appropriate to ask	45:49
	whether he has carried out the requirements of the law	45:52
	with respect to the tens of thousands	45:55
	of illegally striking postal workers.	45:58
	And if not, why not?	46:00
	Law and order absolutely require it.	46:05
	But can Vice President Agnew name one illegal striker	46:10
	that his government put in jail, or fined, or even fired?	46:15
	Were they not all instead rewarded with a pay increase?	46:22
	But if a few college students broke a law	46:29
	and were treated in fashion even remotely similar to this,	46:31
	Mr. Agnew would employ his most venomous rhetoric	46:35
	in denouncing the college administration	46:38
	for coddling law breakers.	46:40
	And he probably would demand that the alumni	46:42
	see to the firing of the university president	46:45
	as he has done in the past.	46:48
	These painful thoughts called to mind	46:52
	a word which St. Paul wrote to the Romans.	46:54
	He said: "Therefore, you have no excuse, oh man,	46:57
	whoever you are when you judge another	47:01
	for in passing judgment upon him,	47:05
	you condemn yourself because you, the judge,	47:07
	are doing the very same thing.	47:10
	You then who teach others,	47:14
	will you not teach yourself?	47:15
	You who boast in the law,	47:18
	do you dishonor God by breaking the law?"	47:20
	The relevance of this scripture to the Agnew rhetoric	47:26
	is not at all diminished by the fact	47:28
	that the Apostle Paul was here discussing the religious law,	47:30
	whereas we today are discussing governmental law.	47:34
	The principle is exactly the same.	47:37
	It is particularly distressing when adults	47:41
	who are not blameless before the law,	47:43
	denounce some students for their faults	47:45
	because adults are a able to have a direct influence	47:48
	upon the laws under which they live,	47:51
	whereas students are not able to do so in the same way.	47:54
	Adults can vote.	47:57
	Most undergraduates cannot vote.	48:00
	Now I am not by this word implying that students	48:05
	who disregard the law may be excused for their disobedience.	48:08
	On the contrary, they are inexcusable	48:12
	when they violate the law.	48:14
	But what I am not only implying,	48:17
	but plainly stating is that adults who can by their vote	48:19
	help to make the laws under which they live	48:22
	are doubly inexcusable when they violate the law.	48:24
	And that those adults who wink at violations of the law	48:28
	and lambaste students,	48:31
	are being profoundly and extravagantly hypocritical,	48:34
	and they vastly contribute to the nation's problems	48:40
	and are in no sense a part of the cure	48:43
	of the country's ills.	48:46
	However pious it makes them feel to hear themselves	48:48
	censure student violators, however many votes	48:51
	they think their red-hot rhetoric can harvest	48:54
	for their office-seeking friends,	48:57
	what they actually are doing is forging a needless	48:59
	and dangerous polarization of our people	49:02
	and it ought to stop now.	49:05
	Respect for law in a democracy	49:12
	is a very necessary commodity.	49:16
	At present, it is in short supply	49:20
	among both adults and young people.	49:23
	There is something which adults can do to help.	49:27
	There is something which students can do to help.	49:31
	Adults can acknowledge that they have tended	49:36
	to make their most vigorous contribution to law and order	49:38
	by making purple-faced pronouncements	49:41
	about it to young people,	49:43
	meanwhile hypocritically winking at violations	49:45
	of the law in their own lives.	49:48
	But having made that acknowledgement,	49:52
	they should not then lead to the wrong conclusion.	49:53
	They can avoid this by paying careful attention	49:58
	to the advice Jesus gave in the scripture lesson read today	50:00
	by the President of the Bar Association.	50:04
	He said, "Why do you see the spec	50:07
	that is in your brother's eye,	50:08
	but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?	50:10
	Or how can you say to your brother,	50:14
	'Brother, let me take out the spec that is in your eye	50:16
	when you yourself do not see the log	50:20
	that is in your own eye?'"	50:21
-	I'm sick and tired.	50:23
	Get out and let me take over.	50:23
-	No, I won't, sorry.	50:25
-	Okay, fine.
-	"'Brother, let me take out the spec that is in your eye	50:30
	when you yourself do not see the log	50:33
	that is in your own eye.'	50:35
	You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye,	50:37
	then you will see clearly to take out the spec	50:41
	that is in your brother's eye."	50:43
	Observe that point is not that we should cease caring	50:46
	about the spec in our brother's eye	50:51
	since we have a log in our own eye,	50:55
	rather it is commendable that we should want to remove	50:58
	the spec from his eye,	51:01
	but to enable ourselves to have the necessary	51:04
	clarity of vision, we first must extract the timber	51:06
	from our own eyes.	51:11
	So adults can best help students to learn respect	51:14
	for the law, not by loquacious harangs,	51:17
	but by quiet and convincing example.	51:21
	What students can do to help sounds very much like	51:26
	what adults can do,	51:29
	except that there's a difference in emphasis.	51:31
	Traditionally young people are as a group	51:34
	more idealistic than adults as a group.	51:37
	Students are clamoring for changes in the structure	51:41
	of society and indeed most of the law violations	51:43
	which have occurred on campus	51:46
	have revolved around students' demands	51:47
	for improvements in society,	51:49
	but how students press for these changes	51:52
	is desperately important.	51:56
	The Apostle Paul wrote to his young friend, Timothy,	51:59
	let no one despise your youth,	52:02
	but set an example in speech and in conduct,	52:05
	in love, in faith, in purity.	52:09
	In describing what this means,	52:14
	I don't think I can improve upon the words	52:15
	written by a Duke student, Bob Edman,	52:17
	published in the September 16 Duke Chronicle.	52:20
	Bob wrote: "If there is one goal of the cause	52:24
	of human justice that overrides all others,	52:28
	it is the aim to eliminate violence from human affairs.	52:31
	Properly, those who believe in social justice	52:36
	fight against war, against racism, against greed.	52:39
	But now we're confronted with a group of people	52:44
	who rail against these evils as vociferously as anyone.	52:46
	Then they go out and destroy a building	52:50
	which might contain people or shoot policemen,	52:52
	who are people, all in order to achieve some greater good.	52:56
	There is a contradiction here	53:01
	and it is simply this: means condition ends.	53:03
	Of course we must sympathize with the frustration	53:09
	and alienation that moves some activist toward violence,	53:12
	but their actions pose just as great a danger	53:16
	to the achievement of a humane society in our country	53:19
	as the actions of the people	53:22
	radicals claim as their enemies.	53:24
	If ever the aim of a world without violence	53:27
	is to be reached, the practitioners of violence	53:30
	must be made to see the futility and danger	53:33
	of their actions, whatever their goals	53:36
	and wherever they come from."	53:38
	End of quote.	53:41
	In closing, I would like to remind all of us,	53:44
	students and adults alike, of a short chapter	53:46
	in the history of this university	53:50
	and to commend a study of that chapter	53:52
	whenever law and order are up for consideration.	53:54
	Almost immediately following the death	53:59
	of Martin Luther King Jr.,	54:01
	approximately 1,500 duke students kept a vigil	54:03
	on the main quad asking for specific decisions to be made	54:06
	which were in the areas of human justice and dignity.	54:11
	While the vigil was in effect,	54:16
	there was not a single report of the violation of any law,	54:17
	any rule, or any regulation.	54:22
	No property was harmed, no person was injured.	54:26
	Law and order were respected and human rights	54:30
	and human justice were strengthened.	54:34
	Amen and amen.	54:37
	In the name of the Father, and of the Son	54:41
	and of the Holy Spirit, amen.	54:43
	(organ music)	54:51
	(congregation singing)	55:22
	(congregation singing continues)	56:07
	♪ Amen ♪	56:28
	(organ music)	56:56
	(organ music)	58:18
	(choir singing)	58:23
	(choir singing continues)	1:00:11
	(organ music)	1:01:52
	("Doxology")	1:01:56
	♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪	1:02:16
	♪ Praise Him, all creatures here below ♪	1:02:22
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	1:02:28
	♪ Praise Him above the heavenly host ♪	1:02:35
	♪ Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost ♪	1:02:41
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	1:02:46
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	1:02:53
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:02:59
	♪ Amen ♪	1:03:07
-	All things come of thee, oh God.	1:03:14
	Our silver and our gold and of thine own do we give thee	1:03:17
	as the symbol of ourselves in the of Jesus Christ, our Lord.	1:03:23
	Now under God's gracious mercy and protection do we commit.	1:03:34
	May the blessing of God come upon you abundantly.	1:03:42
	May it keep you strong and tranquil	1:03:46
	in the proof of His promises through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	1:03:50
	♪ Amen ♪	1:04:02
	♪ Amen ♪	1:04:09
	♪ Amen ♪	1:04:16
	♪ Amen ♪	1:04:35

Item Info

Title:

Howard C. Wilkinson - "Law and Order" (October 25, 1970)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4zk59n93

Date:

October 25, 1970

Speaker:

Wilkinson, Howard C.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0544
ref6291_6rf
uachapelsermaud
duke:628675
dcrau002533
ark:/87924/r4zk59n93
8c8d1a6a-a2da-444f-b938-91efaac74ff0

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Howard C. Wilkinson - "Law and Order" (October 25, 1970)

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1. Howard C. Wilkinson - "Law and Order" (October 25, 1970)

Duke University Archives

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Howard C. Wilkinson - "Law and Order" (October 25, 1970)

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