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SCOTUS: Conservative Protestant Southerners are Verboten. Why?
GoBucks ^ | 31 Oct 05 | Gobucks

Posted on 10/31/2005 4:54:35 AM PST by gobucks

Why are Conservative Southern Protestants forbidden to be on SCOTUS?

I have not been able to find the name of the Last Conservative Southern Protestant nominated to SCOTUS. It has been at the least 100 years.

I predicted that an Alito type was going to replace Miers. Her Southern Texas drawl was not going to be tolerated during the hearings...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: alito; catholic; scotus
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To: BibChr

Nope, the last part of your post #15 appears to be a cheap (not clever) shot at Roman Catholics, implying that they misinterpret the bible when they read it.


41 posted on 10/31/2005 8:07:48 AM PST by Diddle E. Squat
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To: gobucks
I am a conservative (paleo variety), a Southerner (Texan), and a Protestant (Reformed Baptist). There are very good reasons that evangelicals have not produced the caliber of legal scholars as have Catholics, Jews, or mainline Protestants. As Ann Coulter pointed out, Ruth Bader Ginsburg may be an extreme liberal, but she also excelled at Harvard Law School, where the IQ of the median student is one and one half standard deviations higher than the national norm. However, native intelligence is not the only reason for a high IQ.

Evangelicals, Southern or not, are not less intelligent than other Americans. What differentiates them from other Americans, apart from but stemming from their theological views, is their view of the future and family legacy. Starting in the mid 1800s but coming to prominence in the 20th Century, the eschatological view known as dispensationalism became dominant among evangelicals. Dispensationalism, which relates to the role of the Church and of national Israel in the current age and the one to come, is based on Biblical interpretation that sees the only hope for mankind's future in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, Who will establish a literal 1000 year kingdom on earth. This kingdom would be established seven years after Christians were raptured from the earth, prior to a time of tribulation in which most of the remaining human race would be killed, according to the majority opinion in the dispensationalist camp. Human efforts to reform society either through governmental or private means are regarded as ultimately futile. The Christian's primary duty is therefore to preach the Gospel and wait for the blessed hope.

Another element in evangelical theology that must be considered is the effect of the concepts of secondary separation and sinless perfection. Neither concept is as widespread among evangelicals as is dispensationalism. Secondary separation, characteristic of many fundamentalist Baptists, is the belief that saved people should not associate with nonbelievers or participate in their amusements. Thus, many fundamentalists boycotted the movies even in the era when Frank Capra and John Ford were directing movies whose lead actors were Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, and John Wayne. Sinless perfection, characteristic of many Holiness believers and other Wesleyans, is the doctrine that any sin committed by a Christian will cause him to lose his salvation. As a result, the Christian had to avoid worldly temptations at all costs. Both secondary separation and sinless perfection are aberrant doctrines that resemble the ancient heresy of Manicheanism, which held that matter was evil and that sin was prevalent everywhere.

With a majority opinion in the evangelical community that the Lord was returning soon and a significant minority of evangelicals engaged in self-segregation from the mainstream, education in matters outside Scripture was not emphasized and discouraged by many as being as futile as rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Bible colleges and seminaries turned out large numbers of preachers, church staff, and missionaries, along with some theologians and Biblical scholars, but little else. Those not so inclined were mostly educated in public schools and state colleges. If they retained their Christian faith after secular humanist indoctrination, they lived with the concept that things sacred were divorced from those that are of this world. Many rural white Southerners who migrated to the cities after the world wars pulled themselves out of the blue collar workforce much as the children and grandchildren of European immigrants did in Northern cities. Unlike the largely Catholic Northerners, who developed an elaborate university system from Boston College in Massachusetts to Benedictine College near Kansas City, there was little expenditure and effort made in the area of higher education with a Christian worldview. The more prestigious private colleges in the South, such as Baylor and Duke, were far from evangelical strongholds.

While the English Puritans, the Scottish Presbyterians, and their immediate descendants in America were strongly focused upon education of their young people, the rise of liberalism in the mainline denominations redirected the old zeal in a secularist direction. In the 20th and 21st Centuries, only non-Christian groups were as emphatic upon education as were the old Presbyterians and Puritans: Jewish immigrants from central and eastern Europe and East Asian immigrants, most of whom were not Christians (Koreans excepted). The academic achievements of Jews and Asian-Americans witness their commitment to education of young people.

As long as evangelicals place insufficient emphasis on education and the inculcation of the Christian worldview among the young, they will not take a leadership role in American society. When they take seriously God's command to be fruitful and multiply in Genesis 3 and 9, this situation will change, but no sooner.

42 posted on 10/31/2005 8:10:45 AM PST by Wallace T.
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To: Wallace T.

WOW! A rarity, a truly intelligent post!


43 posted on 10/31/2005 8:48:50 AM PST by Skylab
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To: gobucks
This pick is a major slap in the mouth to Conservative Southern Protestants, period.

This is an utterly stupid complaint, as was your recent post about trinitarianism. I mean, really, really stupid. I'm not trying to be mean.

44 posted on 10/31/2005 8:51:02 AM PST by Sloth (You being wrong & me being closed-minded are not the same thing, nor are they mutually exclusive.)
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To: gobucks

This is a dumb thread. Are we the party of quotas now?


45 posted on 10/31/2005 8:59:51 AM PST by Texas Federalist (Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.)
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To: Diddle E. Squat

Was there anything I said that was incorrect? I'm not getting what you're issue is: are you unfamiliar with the Roman Catholic approach to the Bible, or with the Christian approach?

Dan


46 posted on 10/31/2005 9:18:13 AM PST by BibChr ("...behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?" [Jer. 8:9])
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To: gramho12

What's wrong with being an elitist?


47 posted on 10/31/2005 9:35:43 AM PST by oblomov
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To: Wallace T.

Thank you. This was a very informative post.


48 posted on 10/31/2005 9:40:01 AM PST by oblomov
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To: gobucks

This southerner is not all that concerned about where Alito comes from. All that matters to me is that he'll be faithful to the Constitution.


49 posted on 10/31/2005 10:03:18 AM PST by WinOne4TheGipper (Merry Fizzlemas, DUmmies!)
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To: gobucks
This pick is a major slap in the mouth to Conservative Southern Protestants, period.

Ridiculous argument. Any justice who would base his/her rulings on his/her religion is unqualified for the job. Period. I'm a protestant, but I could care less what Alito believes.

50 posted on 10/31/2005 11:06:07 AM PST by jmc813 (Don't Lick Toad)
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To: xzins; gobucks
There comes a point where the absence of certain classifications defies probability theory.

Yes, and that seems to be the point of gobucks' thread.

51 posted on 10/31/2005 11:39:27 AM PST by Dr. Eckleburg ('Deserves' got nothing to do with it.)
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To: Wallace T.; George W. Bush; xzins; gobucks

The problem with this entire discussion is that somehow "Protestant Conservative" has morphed into and only "Evangelical."

Bush could and should have appointed a Protestant Conservative to the bench. The two vacancies, formerly held by Protestants, are both being replaced by Roman Catholics.


52 posted on 10/31/2005 11:52:58 AM PST by Dr. Eckleburg ('Deserves' got nothing to do with it.)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg
A frequent complaint about Catholics is that they are "legalistic."

Wouldn't this be an advantage in this case?

SD

53 posted on 10/31/2005 11:58:50 AM PST by SoothingDave
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To: SoothingDave
Ours is supposed to be a representative form of government.
54 posted on 10/31/2005 12:00:37 PM PST by Dr. Eckleburg ('Deserves' got nothing to do with it.)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg
The Supreme Court is not a house of representatives. And even if it were, it is a fallacy that only members of a subgroup can represent the subgroup's interests.

It's wrong for blacks to think only blacks can represent them, and it's wrong for Protestants to think only Protestants can represent them.

SD

55 posted on 10/31/2005 12:07:49 PM PST by SoothingDave
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To: SoothingDave; xzins; gobucks; George W. Bush

Well, I am pleased Roberts and Alito are strong, conservative heterosexual family men. I think that is who the country needs.

God works His will while we fuss and fume.


56 posted on 10/31/2005 12:31:40 PM PST by Dr. Eckleburg ('Deserves' got nothing to do with it.)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg
There is, of course, some sloppiness in terminology. A person can be a political conservative while being a mainline Protestant. Barry Goldwater, an Episcopalian, and Ronald Reagan, who was raised in the Disciples of Christ denomination and who attended a Presbyterian (USA) congregation in Los Angeles, are examples. OTOH, three of the most infamous liberals in recent American politics, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton, are Southern Baptists. William Rehnquist, who was generally conservative in his court rulings, was a ELCA Lutheran, a non-evangelical group, and the moderately liberal Sandra O'Connor is Episcopalian.

As for religious affiliation, I think that less important than having someone who holds to the doctrine of original intent consistently. If evangelicals lack candidates with the intellectual ability and judicial experience to rise to the high bench, it is primarily because their leaders and institutions did not emphasize that persons in all callings of life, secular or religious, can give all to the glory of God. Most of their institutions of higher learning trained clergy and other religious workers, and not lawyers, doctors, engineers, and scientists.

If Catholics and Jews have done better in intellectual and commercial pursuits than evangelicals, it is the fault of evangelicals. Evangelicals should not fall into the affirmative action mentality.

57 posted on 10/31/2005 12:34:42 PM PST by Wallace T.
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To: gobucks

Now what? Affirmative Action for conservative Protestant southerners?


58 posted on 10/31/2005 12:38:08 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Wallace T.

See #56. I should have pinged you.

Perhaps God is working His will through the RC, the Lutheran and the Reformed perspective.


59 posted on 10/31/2005 12:39:37 PM PST by Dr. Eckleburg ('Deserves' got nothing to do with it.)
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To: Wallace T.

Excellent post.


60 posted on 10/31/2005 12:41:56 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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