Casting Stones
Note this post is about religion so if you are offended by that, please click on through and come back tomorrow.
I am a Christian. Because I want to worship the Lord as I see fit, I jealousy guard against other people's efforts, Christian or otherwise, to force me to worship, or not, how they think I must. This means I am against Sunday laws, invoking God's name (often in vain) in governmental affairs, and efforts to amend the Constitution to establish a State religion. It's this last strategy, attacking the authority of the courts, that I want to talk about today (insert disclaimer here).
Many people who call themselves Christians are upset. They are upset about the possibility of gay people getting married even as they themselves get divorced, multiple times. They are upset about having to remove religious symbols (the Ten Commandments) from the steps of the courthouse even as they constantly and happily violate all of those Commandments. They are upset about not being able to push their religion in public schools (prayer) even as they don't believe in prayer itself. They are violently upset over women being able to choose whether to have children even as they kill those who disagree.
But the courts have been the last blockade against their hateful attempts to force other people to act as they wish. The Executive branch is now held by one of their own. The Congress is controlled by their fellow travelers. Having passed laws to push their hate filled agendas, they find themselves blocked by "activist" courts.
Time after time their blatant attempts to get around the Constitution have been struck down by the courts. There has been much gnashing of teeth and renting of cloaks over this. So far, the courts alone have held against their attacks, although it is but a matter of time before the appointments or election of like minded judges will work their way up, if they haven't already, to the Supreme Court.
Until that darkest of days, these people are trying to remove the jurisdiction of the courts by amending the Constitution. The first is the well publicized and President Bush supported amendment to ban marriages between gays. Note that it goes farther than just getting married. These people are opposed to gays. Period. So it doesn't matter if you want to call it "civil unions" or anything else for that matter. They consider gays evil and want to outlaw them.
The second is the "Religious Liberties Restoration Act". This bill is intended to ensure the courts do not have jurisdiction over, among other things, display of the Ten Commandments. Note that they don't care if you break all of the Commandments, just that they be allowed to display them in government buildings without the courts ordering them not to.
The third prong of their attack is the " Constitution Restoration Act of 2004". This one says "Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Supreme Court shall not have jurisdiction to review, by appeal, writ of certiorari, or otherwise, any matter to the extent that relief is sought against an element of Federal, State, or local government, or against an officer of Federal, State, or local government (whether or not acting in official personal capacity), by reason of that element's or officer's acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government."
In addition, if that wasn't sweeping enough, the courts are prohibited from interpreting the Constitution in any other framework other than "...constitutional law and English common law." What this boils down to is legal precedent from other jurisdictions, save from English common law, would be prohibited. The apparent reasoning behind narrowing the definition is to enshrine the very thing the framers were trying to avoid by coming to America from England, the freedom to worship, or not worship, as you saw fit without the interference of a State religion.
In these dark and uncertain times it is easy for people to seek what they think is the safety of religious symbols. But if the sacrifice of Christ taught us anything, it was that the symbols of the past were but a way of pointing to His coming. That these symbols were signs that God was with us and would someday send His Son to take on our sins so that, through grace, we could enter into the kingdom of God. It is dismaying to me to see people confusing the symbols with God Himself and to try to get around the courts to do so.
Aloha!