Angilbert (fl. ca. 840/50), On the Battle Which was Fought at Fontenoy

The Law of Christians is broken,
Blood by the hands of hell profusely shed like rain,
And the throat of Cerberus bellows songs of joy.

Angelbertus, Versus de Bella que fuit acta Fontaneto

Fracta est lex christianorum
Sanguinis proluvio, unde manus inferorum,
gaudet gula Cerberi.

Friday, May 22, 2009

The Natural Law in Birmingham Jail

ON APRIL 16, 1963, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., authored his famous letter from his cell in the Birmingham City Jail. He was confined there after being arrested for planning a non-violent protest against racial segregation by the City of Birmingham, Alabama, and its downtown retailers. King was arrested by the Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner, Bull Connor, for parading without a permit, and spent 11 days in jail. The letter was in response to a statement ("A Call for Unity") made by white Alabama clergymen who advised that the civil rights movement should focus on the use of judicial means to correct injustices, and not street demonstrations. The letter, based upon traditional notions of Natural Law, includes such unforgettable lines such as: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everyhwere." In the letter, Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes St. Augustine of Hippo's Dialogue On the Free Choice of the Will (De Libero Arbitrio, Book 1, section 5 (1.5.11.33): Nam lex mihi esse non videtur, quae iusta non fuerit. ("For a law that is unjust does not seem to me to be a law at all"). Dr. King also makes reference to St. Thomas Aquinas and his teaching on the Natural Law, which is a direct reference to the so-called "Treatise on Law," that is, Questions 90-97 of the Prima Secundae (Part I-II) of his Summa Theologica.


. . . .

One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.

. . . .




For a copy of the "Call to Unity," to which Dr. King replied, click here.

For a copy of the full text of Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, click here.

2 comments:

  1. There is nothing of the Natural Law in this letter whatsoever.

    Have you not heard of the real original natural law?

    "Birds of a feather, flock together". That is the real, original natural Law. All things segregate by kind. Look on the African velt, giraffe with giraffe, zebra with zebra, and gazelle with gazelle. Chickens flock to each other. Ducks with Ducks, Geese with Geese.

    I know it is kind of hard when Christian priests and ministers spend all their time at a desk or classroom and have never spent a day in reality, in a barnyard. When popes and bishops know next to nothing about farmwork.

    Erik von Kuenhelt-Leddihn, a traditional orthodox Roman Catholic, political science teacher, author of the book Liberty or Equality, constantly refered to Aristotle's dictum "To treat unequal things equally is Unrighteousness". The word "unrighteous" is adkikia.

    To treat the African as an European is not only Unrighteous but ludicrious as well! Somebody has lost their minds. Devoid of "commonsense". Does not the Bible teach that the Sons of Ham are cursed with slavery? Do you know the nature of Africans? Aristotle said "A man not in control of his passions is a slave". Right? What did not Ham control? His passion when he could not revert his eyes from his drunken father Noah. Noah cursed him, and so forever remains the curse upon his seed.

    It seems that many Christians do not know what is in their own bible.

    I would like to ask those people that adore this situation and condone, ever looked at the consequences of those actions? Is America better off? Have you observed the further deterioration of America since desegregation? Has the lot of the Negroe improved? Materially, yes. But sociologically? Huge divorce rate. Huge amount of single mothers.

    What about the huge amount of miscegenation going on? How many black men with white women? What about its converse? Hardly any. Black men chasing after white women, not their own. What we have coming is the Brazilianization of America. Is that a good thing? Has any of our leadership considered this? Do they care? Do they know the repurcussions? My guess, they don't care.

    My next thing is how many European young men now dress and act like ghetto negroes? What is called the Negrification of America. Is this a good thing? Not only are Negroes monopolizing our sports, they are monopolizing our culture to disastrous things! Materialism, sex, bad behavior and attitudes. This is a good thing?

    Is there any retrospection going on? Obviously not. Africans are not Europeans!

    You know socialists and the godless all understand this dictum "Culture defines Politics", but it seems that our Christian shepards don't understand this Natural Law. How do Africans change the culture, and how is that changing American culture and style of government? for the better or for the worse?

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  2. Aristotle notes that all things are either in Authority or in subjection. All things.

    This is the Natural Law. If you refuse to be in authority---something will be placed on top! Nature Abhors a vacuum.

    Who is superior? European or African. Look at the two cultures. Who put a man on the moon? Who created science, medicine, navigated the whole world? Who developed self-government?

    So is not the Natural Law that the Better to rule the worse? Is that NOT the Natural Law?

    If Europeans can not, will not suppress the Negroe, then the Negroe shall rule the European. Does not now the Negroe control the formation of American culture? Then, he rules! And what is happening to European culture? It is becoming more vulgar, more barbarian. Is it any part of Virtue that Young European males are aping negroe mentality and actions? What part of perfection we are called to is this?

    Should slaves rule their betters?

    The Negroe is not equal to the European. What you have here is that of corruption. Infection. That Europeans are no longer live in their own culture and be fed by that culture but are being negrified. Is that really the purpose of Pluralism?

    If you can not suppress, then you will be suppressed in turn.

    Race defines culture! That is the Natural Law. The blessings of America is because of its Germanic Racial Stock. Anglo-Saxons are Teutonic Tribe! America is built on a majority of Germans from Germany, Dutch, and Anglo-Saxons. That is what drives American Culture!

    How can Catholic Bishops be promoters of the good when they have no clue on Culture, on the importance of culture, how culture forms people and gives them sustenance, spiritual and mental character focus? How can they teach the "Good"? When they are ignorant of so much? Are they not doing harm rather than good?

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