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

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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

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

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