Today's Scripture Reading (October 18, 2025): Psalm 119:97-144
Pope Leo XIV recently spoke
out with a caution for the Pro-Life movement in the Western World. His comment
was direct: You are not pro-life just because you oppose abortion. If you are
in favor of Capital Punishment but oppose abortion, don't say you are pro-life,
because you aren't. If you oppose abortion, but are in favor of mistreating the
immigrant among you, don't pretend that you are pro-life, because that is not
true. Pro-Life means valuing all life, regardless of race, gender, or country
of origin. Pro-Life implies that we value all life.
I actually find myself in
agreement with the Pope. In my humble opinion, the problem with politicians is
that they often understand the law in a way that allows them to work around it.
The structure of the Pro-Life movement is one example of this. The current gerrymandering
debate is another excellent example. Gerrymandering in many places is legal, or
maybe more precisely, gerrymandering is a legal reworking of a law or
understanding to obtain a particular result. The idea is that governments can alter
the voting structure of an area so that a party with fewer votes can get more
seats. In other words, if the ridings are engineered correctly, a political party
may receive 45% of the vote but still secure 80 or 90% of the available seats.
It is legal, but at the same time, it is a violation of the intent of the
voting regulations and the concept that every vote counts.
Is there a solution to
gerrymandering? I think that there are. One solution might be to require that
voting districts within a state or province consist of 4 straight lines, except
where the boundary follows another predetermined border, such as the border of
a state, province, county, or city. A second solution would be to take the
total votes raised in a state or province and ensure that representation is
divided in a similar manner. However, no one is listening to me, so we will
continue to gerrymander our way through elections.
The Pro-Life movement and gerrymandering
are examples, but are not the only instances where we utilize our knowledge of the
law to circumvent regulations and achieve our desired outcome. Gerrymandering
in other areas of our lives occurs frequently. Another example I have picked on
in the past is the idea that I am commanded to love you, but not to like you.
This advice is just another way of working around a declaration that we don't
want to follow.
The Psalmist takes a
surprising dig at the religious elite of his day. The Psalmist argues that he
understands the law better because he understands in an effort to follow it; he
doesn't work to understand the law so that he can find a way around it. In
other words, the Psalmist says that he doesn't follow the letter of the law,
but rather the intent of the law. And that is something that we should all take
to heart: understanding the law not so we can find legal ways to violate it,
but so we can follow the law even better.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading:
Psalm 119:145-176
No comments:
Post a Comment