Read pp. 269 -272 in Institutes of Biblical Law.
Listen to the R. J. Rushdoony lecture, Responsibility and Law, that corresponds with this section.
1. State governments have successfully filed suit against cigarette companies for the illness and death their products cause. This despite the fact that warnings have existed for some time on the products and no one is forced to purchase them. How does this demonstrate the truth or falsity of the statement “Where the responsibility is placed makes for a fundamental difference in the social order”? How about the various city governments that have filed lawsuits against gun manufacturers because of the reality that guns are used in the commission of crimes?
2. Can you give an example in our society where the distinction between guilt and nature is not applied in a Biblical framework? What are the outward manifestations of this?
3. Can you think of recent cases in the news where individual justice was sacrificed on the altar of social justice?
4. What makes the Biblical framework a healthy one for any society? How is it carried out when done righteously?
5. What is significant in the fact that the terminology in the Bible is transgression rather than crime?
6. What are the implications of the sentence “After all, why should people who have always been ruled by things object to the rule of elite men”? Do our schools produce “men who have always been ruled by things”? Do they then not “object to the rule of elite men”? Explain.