Smith
This treatise is a guide for those who desire to have ethical practices in their ministries of God’s law, as well as for Clerics to be found walking upright in the secular world, which includes Clerics participating in all government laws as Christian practitioners. As clerics cannot turn off their clerical hat due to the fact our service is to be performed as unto Christ Jesus in all that we do in life, thus we are to be those who have integrity in our ethical practices always. Therefore, our ethical practices are to transfer to all genres of life. This includes areas such those that require us to be political theologians, which all clergy should be ministering in, which includes ministries inside of the church as well as positions in regard to secular laws, and secular law-making arenas. There are ethical ministers found in God’s Church, schools of theology, earthly positions, as well as in the Capitol Cathedrals of secular law-makers. In the Biblical Hebrew tradition of law, the scribes and priest were responsible for interpreting God’s law. Thus, being the lawyers so to speak. Further, the priests were basically the same as judges, the chief priest acted as the Chief Justice, and those other priest with higher positions were in the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was similar to the Supreme Court of the Hebrew people. The Sanhedrin was responsible for interpreting the law especially in the most complex cases. Thus, the priests were acting as both religious leaders interpreting the law, as well as legal authorities. The duties of the priest in these roles can be found in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 17 and verses 8 through 13.
