Rules Aren’t the End We Had in Mind

When a rulemaking body creates rules -- be it parents, schools, government, employers, etc. – the end in mind is a more harmonic manner in which its vision is achieved. Perhaps it’s to protect safety standards, or promote justice, or safeguard the innocent; all worthy causes.

Very often, however, we forget that rules are a vehicle by which we achieve a more virtuous end, and that their enforcement is not the end in itself. If, in fact, the enforcement of a rule does not create a more virtuous end, reasonable people will throw the enforcement out.

Why do I bring this up? It turns out that the powers-that-be in Fairfax County, VA have decided that when churches feed the homeless, they need to be up to the same health codes as everyone. They’re going to need “a food-manager certificate, a ware-washing machine, drain-boards, ventilation-hood systems,” etc. To comply with all Fairfax County regulations would cost the church – charitably feeding the homeless – near $40,000.

While it looks like enough media attention as to this decision is going to stave off shutting down the church kitchen, that it was ever considered shows a way-too-heightened worshipfulness for the almighty written rule.

We are not the servants of bureaucratic rules or precedent. Instead, a virtuous people will keep in mind what rules can provide – a bettered society – and conservatively enforce them only with that end in mind.