CC&Rs

I watched a movie that took place in a small town in Great Britain probably in the 1930s or so. The town had a church, and one of the plotlines that played out was how their new, young priest sought to replace the candles that lit the church with new electric lighting. In the movie, on the day that he lit it up for them for the first time, people in the church were horrified. One woman ran out screaming, "Witchcraft!"

Now, we know it wasn't witchcraft, but how would we determine if lighting a church by candles is more acceptable to God than lighting it with electric light? The character in that movie found it morally offensive. How would we determine it? For most people, there is no "code." Many of us live in places with home owners associations. When we move in, we're given a book called, typically, the CC&Rs -- the covenants, conditions, and restrictions of our neighborhood. Is it okay to put your trashcans out all week? Consult the CC&Rs. Can I paint my house any color I want? Consult the CC&Rs. Is there anything wrong with leaving a car on blocks in my front yard while I restore it for a month? Consult the CC&Rs. Well, life doesn't seem to come with CC&Rs, so we just ... guess. "I ... guess interracial marriage is wrong." "Well, I ... guess it's not." "I ... guess stealing from the rich and giving to the poor is good." "Well, I ... guess it's not." We don't have CC&Rs for life, so your guess is as good as mine. Yet, we don't acknowledge that. We feel we should impose our guesses on everyone else. Because we guess that's the right thing to do.

For some of us, however, we don't guess. We do recognize CC&Rs, a kind of "owners manual" for life. That "manual" might say, "Don't steal," so we conclude, "It's wrong to steal," but not because we're guessing. It's because it's in the manual. And if this manual is indeed an authoritative manual, it wouldn't be foolish to recommend that others don't steal as well. So when that church lady screamed, "Witchcraft!", I wanted to check the manual and see why. Funny thing. It wasn't in there. Is your pet concern in there?