To live outside the law

I'm in a reflective mood, and I still have the pedal steel part to "Like a Rolling Stone" from last Tuesday night playing in my mind. Each week Google sends this site a trickle of visitors who are looking for references to this bit of good advice, "To live outside the law, you must be honest." Today I followed their tracks back to Google, then beyond, and found a thoughtful disquisition on the theme:

“What on earth was Dylan trying to say? Shouldn't law and honesty be put together, rather than to suggest that living outside the law demands honesty?”

“Living outside the law, not as an outlaw, but as a free and responsible citizen means that the writ of the law need not blanket the entire universe with a moral mandate. The challenge and indeed the premise of democracy is that we do not require the policeman on every corner, we do not require a law about every small thing, in order to live as honest citizens, in order to realize a life of freedom.”

It's from Jean Bethke Elshtain's 2003 Meador Lecture in Law and Religion at UVa. Much more there to think on than I have time for at the moment; I will return to the article, and hope to find a complete copy of the lecture.

(Bonus link goes to the Dietrich Bonhoeffer web page, a personal hero, held out by Elshtain as an exemplar of an honest person living outside the law.)