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WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS

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DRAPER’S PAPER ROUTE

WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS

by Adam Carroll Draper

Senator Dianne Feinstein was caught decrying Judge Amy Comey Barrett’s religious values on a hot mic during a recess in the confirmation hearings this week.  Judge Barrett is a devout charismatic Catholic, which Senator Feinstein clearly finds objectionable, particularly as it relates to the fact that Judge Barrett is pro-life.  Senator Feinstein lamented, “She’s been pro-life for a long time. So I suspect with her, it is deeply personal and comes with her religion.” 

https://dailycaller.com/2020/10/15/dianne-feinstein-amy-coney-barrett-religion-pro-life/

It is not as though Senator Feinstein or her fellow Democrats are hiding their animus against devout Christians, an animus which does not appear to extend to overtly religious Muslim public figures, such as Ilhan Omar .  If you will scroll down in the piece from the Daily Caller posted above, there is a link in it to a video published in The Guardian from then Professor Barrett’s confirmation hearings for her appointment to the Seventh Circuit of the US Court of Appeals, in which Senator Feinstein asks a circuitously tortured, yet plaintive question (by way of making a statement):  “Why is it that so many of us on this side have this very uncomfortable feeling that; you know, dogma and law are two different things, and I think that, whatever a religion is, it has its own dogma.  The law is totally different, and I think in your case, uhh, Professor, when you read your speeches, uhmm, the conclusion that one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for for years in this country.”

This must come as a shock to those indoctrinated in the groupthink of our institutions of higher learning, but all law is formed upon notions of right and wrong or what is good or bad.  Even traffic laws are based upon the implicit assumption that preventing accidents is a good thing.  Public morality informs a society’s collective notions of right and wrong, and laws are passed and enforced on that basis.  What are the “big issues” that Senator Feinstein feared then Professor Barrett’s dogma endangered?  One of them was clearly abortion rights.  How did Senator Feinstein and her fellow Democrats decide that women (or now men, apparently) ought to have abortion rights?  They were not merely driven by an interpretation of the Constitution. What brought them to support abortion rights? Is that good or bad.  It’s a simple question.  How did they arrive at their conclusion?

Public morality forms the basis for any society’s law.  Opinions about what is right or wrong based upon religious moral precepts are no more or less relevant to the formation of law than the opinions of those who decry religious dogma because their opinions are necessarily based upon moral presupposition as well.  They have their own dogma.  Said otherwise, everyone has an opinion about what is right and what is wrong.  In the Western legal tradition, Judeo Christian moral presuppositions have provided the moral basis for the agreement and implementation of law and the structure of Western society itself.  Those norms can certainly change.  People can decide (as many have) that they no longer accept the Christian moral tradition, but that hardly prevents those who adhere to that tradition from using it as the basis for law or what is right and wrong.

It is impossible to remove religious notions of right and wrong from American law and any complete understanding of our history.  For instance, consider Lincoln’s second inaugural address:

The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Can we all now agree that President Lincoln was using his religion as a basis for contending that ending slavery was a good thing, even if accomplished by war? 

Senator Feinstein?

Anyone?

Of course, religion informs our laws.  We either agree or disagree with those laws based upon what we each think is good or bad.  A firm reliance upon our religious heritage formed the basis for America and the very notion that God, not government, made us free.  It is baked into the bones of the republic itself.

It cannot be stated often enough, so I will do so again; the Declaration of Independence makes it clear that the founders relied upon a religious basis to revolt from England.  Lest anyone forget, the founders proclaimed to the world: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Have Senator Feinstein and those on her side forgotten Patrick Henry’s dogmatic declaration?  “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”

 

If you got anything out of this missive, please give it a thumbs up, comment and/or share it.  It helps.  I sincerely appreciate that you took the time to read it.

Adam Draper2 Comments