Law-Word

Back in my Argumentative Protestant Days, I became fascinated with a sect of the Presbyterian/Reformed world who were known as theonomists (from the Latin for “God’s law”) or Christian Reconstructionists. Briefly, these fellows advanced the idea that society could be reconstructed using the principles found in biblical law. The most prominent of these men was a very interesting character named Rousas Rushdoony, who liked to use a very handy phrase, “law-word.” He was quite influential in the 1990s, but after his death, the organization which was his life’s work seemed to fall apart, as movements headed by an irreplaceable leader tend to do. I attended a conference where Rushdoony was the keynote speaker and got the chance to chat with him briefly during the lunch break. He was a gentle, perceptive man with a strong presence (even though physically failing at the time), a penetrating gaze, and a formidable, agile mind.

I think there was much to admire in Rushdoony’s work, especially his logical – some would say ruthless – application of biblical law to society’s problems. I have never forgotten the insights Rushdoony and a few of his associates offered, and from time to time, I pull them out of my memory, dust them off, and tinker with them as a mental exercise and a way to distract myself from the nightmarish landscape of lawlessness that is the 21^st century.

I’m going to describe here how a theonomic worldview would work, just to give  you an idea of this sort of approach. None of what I’m going to describe is original; this is generally a patchy summary of Rushdoony’s thought, with the disclaimer that some of what I will proffer would likely be in conflict with or in addition to the standard theonomy/Christian reconstruction philosophy. For example, Rushdoony’s theology is heavily Calvinistic, a position I reject. But his ideas, when applied to today’s legal/moral situation, are intriguing and, I think, useful.

To put it another way, this is my version of “If I Were Running The Show.” I haven’t picked up a Rushdoony book in at least thirty years. I no longer even own any Rushdoony books, nor have I looked any up on the internet. My version of “How I’d Run Things” is based solely on my memory of Rushdoony’s writings, combined with my own sensibilities and quirks and biases, and hopefully a bit of practical common sense.

First of all, with apologies to Shakespeare, the first thing we’d do is kill all the lawyers. Or at least kill their golden goose, which is to say to abolish the profession of lawyerly lawyerdom. The exception would be arbitration-type situations, but under a true law-word system, the need for such things would not be the norm.

If I were running the show, incarceration would never, ever be used for punishment. It would be merely to hold a prisoner for trial. Since we wouldn’t have courts clogged with frivolous cases and appeals, intended to line the pockets of the jackal insiders, trials would be swiftly conducted, with the court calling witnesses, examining evidence, etc.

Once guilt or innocence was determined, on the strength of witnesses and solid corroborating evidence, sentences would be immediately pronounced and enacted. Here’s where it gets interesting. Under biblical law-word, capital crimes such as murder, homosexuality, adultery, incest, lying about one’s virginity, bestiality, witchcraft, idolatry or apostasy, public blasphemy, false prophesying, kidnapping, rape, and bearing false witness in a capital case , etc. (note that capital crimes are pretty much all crimes that strike against the home and the family, not “society”), the sentence would automatically be death, to be carried out as soon as the convicted person had a short period of time, say 24 hours) to meet with and say goodbye to loved ones, sign a last will and testament, etc.

All my life, there’s been an ongoing debate about whether or not capital punishment is a deterrent. This is a side issue, and perhaps even a red herring. When a society tells a person that no matter what he does, even if he robs another person of his most cherished possession – his life –that his own most cherished possession – HIS life – will never be in jeopardy… well, you can look around and see what we get. If people knew that capital crimes (and perhaps other crimes, depending on the circumstances..more on that in a minute) would automatically result in swift, dispassionate execution, I would hazard a guess that this WOULD be a deterrent. But what about a sociopath/psychopath? Well, paths are gonna path, if you get my meaning. If they’re not deterred by their own moral sense, coupled with the society’s sanctions, they’re gonna cross that line eventually anyway. And when they do, they forfeit their life immediately. No appeal. No lawyer tricks. No living for years on the taxpayer’s dole, lifting weights and taking college courses and watching Netflix and learning new criminal techniques. Just a simple “Say goodbye to your family. OK, now put your head here and Madame G will do the work. Farewell, and may God have mercy on your soul.” This is how we deal with mad dogs, and the sorts of men I just described are mad dogs. Again, it seems to me that such a system would be a deterrent. But even if not…so what? It’s about justice, not some amorphous and intangible maybe-maybe deterrent.

But let’s be careful to point out that the nature of true justice is not to be a deterrent. That’s a latent effect. The pure purpose of the law-word is to protect the innocent and to punish evildoers. And that’s exactly what my vision would do.

What about non-capital crimes? Say, for instance, robbery or theft? Well, in the case of robbery, it would depend on whether an innocent person were harmed or killed in the course of the crime. If a death occurred, even accidentally, bingo. You forfeit your life. If the innocent person is badly injured, then we’ll talk restitution, and restitution is the cornerstone of punishment for all non-capital crimes. So what about theft, one of the most common crimes? Well, in the Old Testament (and I’m quoting from memory here, so mea culpa if I get the details wrong), if a man stole a lamb or a goat, once caught and convicted, he would have to repay three lambs or goats to the victim. If it was a large animal like an ox, he would repay five oxen. You get the idea.

So what happens if a man steals a lamb but is unable to repay three lambs? In this case, the thief would immediately become the victim’s indentured servant (or slave, if you will) and would work his debt off. If he refused to work and repay his restitution, he would be executed. Yes, that’s right. His life would be forfeit. Sound harsh? Think about it this way. In our modern society, if I steal something from you and I get caught and arrested, when I come to trial, the case is The State of Texas or Virginia or Wherever vs. S.K. Orr. The victim of the crime is not directly represented. If I steal your car and am convicted of this crime, I might do jail time, and I might or might not be ordered to pay restitution. If I do, though, I don’t pay YOU. I pay the state. Your insurance company…which means all the other people who have policies in your insurance company, pay for the loss of the car. And increasing insurance rates will reflect this. But YOU get nothing from the criminal. And if I can’t pay, well, we’ll talk about that in a few months or years when my appeal comes up. In the meantime, everyone pays except me, the criminal, even if I serve time for the theft. My serving time doesn’t do one thing to help you, the victim. And it might just harden and hone me into a more proficient criminal. See how insane that is? But if I steal your car and can’t pay you back the value of five cars and I refuse to work it off as your slave and I skip town and then get caught, I’m tried for failure to make restitution and my ticket gets cancelled before the next sunset, and that’s that. Do you think THIS would be a deterrent for the indolent clown who thinks it would be fun to vandalize your tractor that you need to get in your crops? Public executions would also be helpful in this whole “deterrence” bidness. This is just a quick example. We could talk for days about what happens with various crimes, but you probably get the gist of how this would work. For myself, I see this system as humane and sane. The victims get back what was taken from them plus a justly augmented amount. The criminal pays for the crime. But note that he doesn’t pay a debt to “society.” He pays the victim. This is just. This is right.

Oh, and one other thing. I mentioned earlier that incarceration would not be used as punishment, but just as short-term holding while the accused is awaiting trial. If he pays back his full restitution, either by his own means or by indentured servitude, his record would be completely expunged. AND…it would be a serious crime for anyone, whether an employer or anyone else, to attempt to hold his crime against him. Why? Because the crime is paid for, and the debt to the victim is settled. This is mercy. Justice and mercy. Under the present system, let’s say I’m a 19 year old dumbass who gets liquored up on Ol’ Popskull and decides that my buddies have a real good idea when they suggest we steal old man Throckmorton’s Jeep and take it for a joyride through the fields. So we steal the Jeep, and I’m behind the wheel, and I lose control of the Jeep and roll it down a hill and kill a couple of prize thoroughbred bulls and destroy a nice barn. I get arrested and convicted and sentenced to two years in prison and $10,000 in restitution. This all according to the judge’s “guidelines,” which contain a lot of wiggle room and “discretion.” My family is dirt poor and I have a minimum wage job with no way of paying this money. The state decrees that my wages are garnished once I serve my two years until the ten grand is paid off. I do ten months and get paroled on good behavior. What kind of job can I get now? I have a record as a convicted felon. I can’t get a decent job. Hell, I might not even be able to get into college or a trade school, depending on where I live and who knows me. My life is marred and smudged and well and truly screwed. The chances of this now-21 year old dumbass to  be able to crawl out form under this might not be zero, but they’re damn sure within the same zip code as zero. How long will it take me to pay the court-ordered restitution to the state? And meanwhile, my rich high school classmate who killed a pregnant teenager while toked up on maryjane gets a pricey lawyer, courtesy of Daddy Warbucks, who went to college with the lawyer, and he gets probation, his weekend in the pokey counted as time served, a little community service, and he’s back out and finishing up his applications to Big State University, no harm and no foul.

Under the law-word system, the classmate would forfeit his life, just as he took the pregnant girl’s life, end of story. And under the law-word system, I would go to work, either for the farmer whose property I destroyed, or at an outside job (the place of employment of which would be prohibited from discriminating against me because of my arrest), and I would pay the farmer back personally for every cent I owed him for my little joyride. And after I paid my full debt, my record would be as clean and unblemished as Kamala Harris’s physics textbook from college. That’s just, and that’s merciful.

It’s certain that there are lots of Very Clever Boys who could pick apart the legal particulars of my hypothetical examples, but I don’t believe the nitpicking would change the saneness or the practicality of how things would run, if I were running the show.

But oooooooohhhh…..take a man’s life because he refused to make restitution? Execute a man just because he had his way with that hot cheerleader against her wishes, or the guy who fondled the six year old at the farmer’s market, or the wily slut who represented herself as a pure virgin to the guileless doofus she met at the church picnic, the one who proposed to her three weeks later but then found out the truth when some of his friends did a little intervention? You bet your ass. Living in a law-word society, those characters would know in advance what was expected of them, what was prohibited, and the price they’d pay if they decided to go rogue.

That’s what I’d do if I were running the show. And I know lots of folks are breathing a sigh of relief because I ain’t.

~ S.K. Orr