A Court Without an Anchor

There will certainly be a battle for the next Supreme Court appointment. All types of questions will be asked on current social issues. Views on abortion and homosexual marriage will dominate the discussion. These are peripheral issues. They are meaningless without a anchor point. Why even ask such questions if there is no God watching our decisions? Ted Kennedy will lead the charge and will object to any nominee who displays any desire to embrace a moral worldview; this from a man who champions the death of the unborn while a self-professing member of a church that officially condemns abortion. His political career should have drowned along with Mary Jo Kopechne on July 18, 1969, instead he remains the point man for a political party that has sold its soul for abusive political power. His life is devoid of the moral anchor that has steadied this nation through many storms.

The evidence is overwhelming that America has in the past always linked good government to religion—in particular, to Christianity. Historians and constitutional scholars Anson Stokes and Leo Pfeffer summarize the role that the Christian religion played in the founding of this nation and the lofty position it has retained:

Throughout its history our governments, national and state, have co-operated with religion and shown friendliness to it. God is invoked in the Declaration of Independence and in practically every state constitution. Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, is universally observed as a day of rest. The sessions of Congress and of the state legislatures are invariably opened with prayer, in Congress by chaplains who are employed by the Federal government. We have chaplains in our armed forces and in our penal institutions. Oaths in courts of law are administered through use of the Bible. Public officials take an oath of office ending with “so help me God.” Religious institutions are tax exempt throughout the nation. Our pledge of allegiance declares that we are a nation “under God.” Our national motto is “In God We Trust” and is inscribed on our currency and on some of our postage stamps.[1]

After only a cursory study of the years leading up to and including the drafting of the Constitution and the inauguration of the first president, it becomes obvious that Christianity played a foundational role in shaping our nation. It is not surprising that when courts had to define religion, they linked it to the Christian religion. In 1930 the Supreme Court declared, “We are a Christian people, according to one another the equal right of religious freedom, and acknowledging with reverence the duty of obedience to the will of God.”[2]

It makes a difference that our coins are stamped with “In God We Trust” instead of “In Allah We Trust.” It’s important to note that the Library of Congress has a quotation from a Psalm, instead of a quotation from the Koran. In addition, it’s significant to note that “every foreigner attests his renunciation of allegiance to his former sovereign and his acceptance of citizenship in this republic by an appeal to God”[3] and not to the Buddha. “But as true as these symbols may be, and as important as our structures may be, they are not, in and of themselves, evidence or assurance of America’s greatness—past, present, or future. National greatness does not spring from an accumulation of archival antiquities and architectural details, or from symbols and slogans. It does not spring from documents, precedents, constitutions, or legislation. National greatness springs from righteousness, goodness, character, and true spirituality!”[4] As Scripture declares: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people,” and “a throne is established by righteousness” (Prov. 14:34 and 6:12).

Ted Kennedy and those who will line up behind him have no regard for righteous government.

Endnotes:

[1] Anson Phelps Stokes and Leo Pfeffer, Church and State in the United States (New York: Harper & Row, 1964), 83, 102–103. [2] United States vs. Macintosh, 283 U.S. 625 (1930).
[3] David J. Brewer, The United States: A Christian Nation (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, [1905] 1998), 31. [4] Peter J. Leithart and George Grant, In Defense of Greatness: How Biblical Character Shapes a Nation’s Destiny (Ft. Lauderdale, FL: Coral Ridge Ministries, 1990), 4.