Spirit of the law

THE EDITOR: Though the preamble to our constitution speaks to spirituality, the present heated debate about the buggery law seems to suggest that there ought not to be any spirituality attached to such discussion since we live in a secular state. This will be their argument, although this secular state donates financially to religious bodies for their various celebrations.

A former prime minister was even handed the reins of power on moral and spiritual grounds. Most laws that govern civil societies are based on morality, spirituality and good conscience.

We debate about laws and seldom recognise that every law has a spirit — we often talk about “the spirit of the law.” For example, some years ago, under a Caricom agreement where goods made in the region were given tax concessions, one of our neighbouring countries began importing knocked-down garments from Asia, stitching them at home and branding them as “Caricom made!” They were holding to the letter of the law and not to the intended spirit of the law.Were they really “Caricom Made?”

There is, in my view, a spirit to every law that is made. Assembling cars in TT does not us make us manufacturers.

The Creator of our lives has requested that we be “fruitful and multiply” and, like it or not, He has entered our bedrooms through that request.

I, therefore, agree wholeheartedly with those who say that whatever they do in the privacy of their homes is nobody’s business. It is not anybody’s business. It’s the business of the Holy Spirit — His Spirit.

Larry Harewood via e-mail