If you’ve been following various secular and Christian media outlets, you’ve probably seen the news that Pat Robertson is launching Operation Supreme Court Freedom, which is a 21-day prayer offensive to make 3 justices of the Supreme Court retire so that conservative ones can be appointed in their place. Ummm… isn’t this just a little presumptious? I mean… he’s presuming that he is a.) correct in all of this and b.) that the Lord Almighty didn’t place these judges in power. I mean… they were put on the bench legally. That’s more than we can say for our President. (Sorry… I really couldn’t resist that. Really. I couldn’t.)
Let’s look at Pat’s little manifesto. And for those who want to accuse me of prooftexting it and quoting out of context, you can go to the linked portions and read them yourself. Oh yes… and send any and all hatemail here. (Remove the NOSPAM from the address.) For those who want to fisk me thoroughly, do so in your own journals and leave the link in my comments. Having covered all the hate mail and comment procedures, let’s start…
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote:
“You seem to think that the Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of constitutional interpretation, a very dangerous doctrine indeed and one that would place us under the tyranny of an oligarchy.”
How wise Jefferson was. Yet even Jefferson could not have foreseen what the Supreme Court has done to the Constitution of the United States since 1962. Just think what five unelected judges have done to our nations moral framework.
Yes Pat, let’s quote a deist president who insisted on including the 1st Amendment to the Bill of Rights so that people could have the freedom to worship as they please. Even better, let’s quote someone whose choice of Bible version was one that edited out all the stuff about Jesus. Yeah Pat… you’re real credible there.
So let’s look at the supposed mayhem wreaked by the Supreme Court:
-In 1962, they ruled prayer out of the public schools.
Actually, prayer still exists in school — it just cannot be compulsory. When I was going to school in California (which most in this country view as a state of tofu and avocado eating hippie freaks who worship trees), we were never told not to pray before tests. I had teachers who even gave us a moment of silence before we began to use for prayer or to focus. We were never told we couldn’t pray over lunch — I did all through high school and Christian clubs were allowed in every public school — as long as membership wasn’t compulsory.