In preparation for tomorrow's seminar (online, of course) in Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought, I had assigned my students to read CS Lewis's "Meditation on the Third Commandment". ("You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.") The subject of the meditation was the advisability of forming a Christian political party in the United Kingdom.
A few selections:
A few selections:
By the mere act of calling itself the Christian Party it implicitly accuses all Christians who do not join it of apostasy and betrayal. It will be exposed, in an aggravated degree, to that temptation which the Devil spares none of us at any time--the temptation of claiming for our favorite opinions that kind and degree of certainty and authority which really belongs only to our Faith.
The demon inherent in every party is at all times ready enough to disguise himself as the Holy Ghost; the formation of a Christian Party means handing over to him the most efficient make-up we can find. And when once the disguise has succeeded, his commands will presently be taken to abrogate all moral laws, and to justify whatever the unbelieving allies of the "Christian" Party wish to do.
On those who add "Thus said the Lord" to their merely human utterances descends the doom of a conscience which seems clearer and clearer the more it is loaded with sin.
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