How to be a real-life paladin

Didn't Jesus freak out when one of his followers actually cut a guy during the arrest?

>confusing Lawful alignment with Law of the land
lurk

True Law is inherently good. It is a set code which dictates your actions in a manner that covers as many scenarios as possible to prevent evil from being visited upon yourself or others, both in the short and long term.

>Cutting a guy is the same as calling a guy a moron

I felt a voice within myself, speaking to me softly. It said very little at first, as I tried to cope with the cognitive dissonance of it all.

"How do I know that you are not me?" I whispered. "I'll address that soon", was all it said.

The voice said nothing for five days. But on the sixth day, it told me to go to the shed and get a shovel and dig at the place it would show me. After digging there for a full day, I unearthed a massive lead box.

Just then, my father came home, and claimed the box for his own. He set it on the kitchen table, broke open the lock, and lifted the lid.

I'm just saying the part about buying a sword is out of context

I guess you're right in that it doesn't justify using violence willy-nilly, but the fact that the apostled were ordered to grab their swords (even if it were only 2 swords to defend a group of 12) does imply approval of self-defense rather than mindless pacifism.

The box was filled with castoff pottery, most of it cracked and damaged and worthless. My father went berserk, and I fled for my life. I got about a mile away and began planning how to leave home forever.

"No", said the voice, "go back home."

"He'll kill me," I replied.

"I've got it sorted," the voice said.

"I'll go back home, but you must never talk to me again," I said.

"-never?" asked the voice. It sounded sad.

"-well, only in an emergency. My dad goes crazy, I can't risk anything like what happened with the box."

"Ok", he finally said.

4 weeks later my father put down the work belt he was about to hit me with. He complained of a sudden severe migraine, the first of many, which laid him up for seven years, and he never laid a hand on me again.

But my descent into the paladin's way was only just begun.

Thanks to everyone for all the replies guys, I appreciate your input.

If you're going with a sort of "natural law" universal definition of Law, then the distinction between the Lawful/Chaotic axis and the Good/Evil axis becomes basically meaningless.

Due to the Eighties Moral Panic, my father had disallowed any Dungeons and Dragons in the house. He made me burn my books, and he wouldn't allow most video games. But when he was struck down with the sickness, I was able to dabble a little bit. I found the video game Ultima IV Quest of the Avatar. Becoming intrigued with the morality questions and the Bhuddist Eightfold Path in it, I began to study morality more deeply.

None of it did any good, and I was a bitter, trembling wreck. I was committed to a moral life through my religion, but it was a white-knuckled, griping existence.

Many years later, late one night as I was driving home, I was approaching a traffic light, which was green. And I heard the voice again, the very same voice, telling me to stop at the green light.

"No," I said, "I am a modern day paladin, committed to upholding the law. I would never do that."

"Do it", he said.

What happened next freaks me out to this day.