Monday, March 28, 2005

Constitution Restoration? Or just Christian Fundamentalism?

Check out the Constitution Reform Act (H.R. text here, the Conservative Caucus page on it here), and tell me what you think.

I think it sucks.  I hate laws, even laws that make sense to implement.  But you need some more viable reasons.

First, it tries to enforce via law the myth that:

  1. God exists, and
  2. All our freedom comes from him

Aside from the fact that I am an atheist, I do believe in Natural Law – i.e. there is an absolute right way to live, and that includes my absolute freedom to do as I please.  I don’t believe it was handed down from some anthropomorphic Zeus impersonator, but is a natural offshoot of my intelligence and evolution – I think, therefore I am and all that.  However, I don’t think this is legislatable – it’s a personal choice, a philosophy of life, much like someone else’s choice of god, religion, church, and morality.  It cannot, should not, and if I have any say, will not be codified in some half-witted set of words that defies further scrutiny,

Second, it tries to limit the interpretation of our laws by banning the use of foreign sources when judges write their decisions.  At best, this will mean that judges (who don’t live in cocoons) will simply write their decisions so as to appear capricious (rather than citing a U.N. resolution to support their stance).  At worst, we’ll move closer to a fully politicized and activist Supreme Court, more interested in figuring out what the legislature wanted to do rather than saying what they can’t do.

Third, it doesn’t restore a damned thing.  In fact, one can argue (but not if it passes), that it actually violates the Freedom of Religion clause in the First Amendment (by recognizing the existance of God, you have a de facto state religion, loosely based on Judeo-Christian origins).  Now, I know my history - the Founding Fathers were all Christian to a man, various flavors of Protestantism.  Our government was founded by these men with their 18th Century Christian principles laced through the documents that form this country.  Our country has wavered from these principles time and time again - the Conservative Coalition would have you believe that gay marraige is the primary sign of the End Times, and the biggest wavering from our Constitutional principles there ever was.  They are, of course, wrong – events such as the Whiskey Rebellion, the War Between the States, Income tax, welfare, social security, the War on Drugs, and the War on Terror are all more heinous and serious breaches of our Constitutional government than gay marriage could ever be.

If you’re Congressman is on the list of sponsors or co-sponsors, write to him and tell him that government should stay out of your, my, and everyone else’s personal life, and that his personal life should stay out of his job.

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