Religion, government and the Declaration of Independence

Canada Free Press ^ | Thursday, June 30, 2005 | Michael M. Bates

[Alexander Rubin]

This week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on government displays of the Ten Commandments. Apparently some of the justices have enrolled in the John Kerry School of Advanced Nuance and Nonsense. Displaying the Ten Commandments outside the Texas state capitol is OK, but displaying them inside Kentucky courthouses isn’t.

Bringing some common sense to the matter was, as usual, Justice Antonin Scalia. In his dissent he wrote: "What distinguishes the rule of law from the dictatorship of a shifting Supreme Court majority is the absolutely indispensable requirement that judicial opinions be grounded in consistently applied principle."

Consistency? Principle? In present day Washington, that’s probably expecting too much.

These decisions came only days before we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. An irony is that the Declaration is a statement of religious faith as well as a political manifesto.

The document contains repeated references to God: "the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God;" "they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;" "appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions;" and "a firm reliance on the Protection of divine Providence."

Today’s children are often taught that many if not all of the Founding Fathers -- now designated the more PC correct "Founders" -- were Deists or agnostics or disbelievers. That’s a conclusion you wouldn’t draw from their words.

[Alexander Rubin]

Nothing new, but a well written and well presented conservative perspective nonetheless.