Too many rules!
Rules. A necessary evil to keep law and order, or being taken way too far?

This thought occurred to me as I sat in my first class meeting yesterday. As I glanced at the "Writing Requirements for Papers" packet (yes, packet) the professor gave to each of us, I could feel myself starting to tense up. The professor had listed 32 rules that we must follow when we write papers for her. Some of these rules included:

"Be careful about SPELLING... Names and words which are misspelled or incorrectly hyphenated will be costly. Each 6 to 10 errors will take 5% off your grade. If there are many errors... [the paper] will be returned to you to adjust, and THE GRADE WILL BE LOWERED." (Yes, that capitalization was indeed there. I didn't add it.)

"In ANY PAPER, please do NOT evaluate the personality or style of the author. You are to evaluate what the author says, the substance of their thought, not their manner of saying it."

"Note the REQUIRED LENGTH of your paper. Be very careful of the minimum. If you are allowed 10 to 12 pages, that means NO LESS THAN 27 lines OF TEXT on page 10! Page 10 must be completely full or you will receive a comensurate deduction from your grade..." (Again, the capitalization is not mine, but the professor's.)

The professor also listed requirements for specific margins, font size, how the title page should look exactly, what we should and should not include in papers, etc.

Now don't get me wrong, I like rules. I love when people are specific about what they want-- this saves time and energy trying to guess and/or ask details about what the other person wants. Rules and requirements are things that keep our sociey organized. My first response to this packet was dread, and then I realized that this could be a blessing in disguise. I held in my hands the key to making this professor happy, and as long as I followed her rules I should be golden.

While I taught Vacation Bible School last night, however, I started to think about the use of rules. As the children became restless (as children do) I had to yell out the usual rules that we all remember from back in the day: "No running!" "No horseplay!" "Be nice to each other!" "Take turns and share!" As I yelled out each rule, I started realize that our whole lives are run by the rules of others. These poor kids just want to act out on normal childhood impulses, and we adults stifle them. At an early age, rules are pounded into our brains and the list of regulations and demands just keeps growing. Why? To convenience ourselves by making the children's behavior more orderly? Too teach them skills needed in adult society? To make sure that they know what is going on and aren't focused on other things that aren't deemed important? All of the above? I can only wonder if we are stifling children's creativity and enthusiasm by forcing too many rules and restrictions on them.

I myself had a similar experience as I attempted to write my first paper this morning for the professor described above. I had originally thought that I knew how to write a reflection paper. I enjoy writing reflection papers, and had written many of them in the past. This morning, however, my confidence was shattered. I realized that there were so many rules about what reflection papers should be that I wasn't sure if I was doing it correctly. I agonized over each sentence, trying to determine if it was correct. I triple-checked margins and the title page. My joy of writing had turned into a chore. Finally, I was so exhausted with worry that I just wrote the rest of my paper as I normally would, hoping that it would be up to snuff. I realized that, although rules can be beneficial, they can also be detrimental. Even now that the paper is done, I have no idea if what I wrote is what was expected. I can only hope that it is.

The Bible has rules, as does every religion. There are rules for what foods to eat, how to act in specific sacraments and rituals, how to behave, how to live our lives. Our religion shapes everything. As I said before, rules can be good. But when have we gone too far? Many people have left the Catholic Church for other denominations or religions because there are just too many rules. The Catholic theologian Karl Rahner urges the Church to realize that by imposing so many rules, they are stifling the Holy Spirit's movement. By not allowing women who are called by the Spirit to ordained ministry to follow that calling, the Church is squleching the Spirit. Rahner tells the Church "DO NOT STIFLE THE SPIRIT!"

Are we stifling the Spirit by imposing too many rules on ourselves and on others?