culture

Culture Change, Illustrated

~ brandon ~ Leave a comment

In 1923 Charlie Chaplin made the movie, The Pilgrim.  In it, Chaplin plays an escaped con who poses as a Pastor.  Chaplin’s character, The Pilgrim, preaches a sermon on David and Goliath.  Since it’s a silent film, the only aids to the audience’s understanding is one card (which reads, “The Sermon will be on David and Goliath”) and Chaplin’s body language.  As I watched it I was able to understand the story, including David taking stones from the stream.  Then two things dawned on me:

1)  In 1923 Chaplin thought it was believable that an escaped convict would be familiar with the story of David and Goliath.

2)  In 1923 Chaplin thought an average movie audience would be able to follow the story of David and Goliath with only his body language.

That led to a further thought:

Would both of those assumptions hold today?

Laws & Morality

~ brandon ~ Leave a comment

The Telegraph publishes a story about Switzerland reconsidering incest laws.  In the midst of the article comes this quote from a member of the Swiss Parliament:

“Incest is a difficult moral question, but not one that is answered by penal law,” he said.

via Switzerland considers repealing incest laws – Telegraph.

His quote makes me wonder:  aren’t most laws moral questions?  Take murder as an example.  Isn’t it illegal because society deems it immoral?  The current fight over same-sex marriage seems to be a moral argument that may or may not change the laws.  Perhaps, in free societies, laws often reflect our social answer to moral questions.

Consider something Jesus said about morality:

“But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.”  (Matthew 15:18 ESV)

Truly Jesus is not speaking of how social norms become law.  Yet, isn’t it a similar principle?  When laws are passed by a legislature they reflect the heart of the people–at least to some extent.  When they don’t reflect that heart, well the past two years of American politics has shown what happen.