Properly understanding constitutions and charters is not hard. They are kept simple because the people ought to be able to comprehend them and, at least in a virtuous culture, sound the alarm if and when they might be violated.
The trouble is we have permitted the prostitution of our constitutions because we have bought into the lie that “The constitution means whatever the courts say it means.” In the absence of a Natural Law arbiter, a role best reserved for a religious authority, we have fallen back on “constitutional arbiters,” who for the most part are creatures of an oligarchy that illegally accrues and jealously guards its powers.
Constitutions which have been ripped and torn asunder on the state and federal level almost from the moment of their inception, are no true guarantor of our liberties.
Constitutions are mere pieces of paper, just like any foreign treaty between sovereign states. When the two parties are of equal strength, and if there is a reasonable respect for the Natural Law within the respective cultures, treaties have a good chance of being followed. One thinks of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty that established the 49th parallel as the boundary between Canada and the U.S. Even evil powers, if they have temporary mutual interests and roughly equal strength, might honor their treaties, such as the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939.
But woe to the weaker party! When the Nazis saw their chance, they invaded Russia after less than two years as an “ally.” And even when Natural Law does hold sway, woe to America’s Indian tribes, as treaty after treaty was broken or unilaterally changed.
Thus, constitutions which have been ripped and torn asunder on the state and federal level almost from the moment of their inception, are no true guarantor of our liberties. Only a proper understanding of Natural Law – meaning the universal acceptance of right and wrong and the Divine Authority and eternal destiny behind it – and a willingness of the culture to defend it, is where any true human freedom can thrive.
The U.S. Supreme Court convolutes the Constitution by inventing words that aren’t there,,,
“Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, nor prohibit the free exercise thereof.” Thus, the first breath of the mis-named “Bill of Rights” goes straight to man’s quest for his eternal destiny. But note what it does not say: “Congress, the states, the counties, the municipalities, the school districts …”
Yet that is how the U.S. Supreme Court convolutes the Constitution by inventing words that aren’t there, followed by the lock-step of the various state courts in the belief that we have a uniform interpretation that must be adhered to within the three million square miles of a continental republic.
And, the courts have defined mere prayer as “establishing religion,” ignoring the very next phrase of the First Amendment regarding the Freedom of Speech, instead of applying what everyone knew was meant by the “Establishment Clause” in 1788, which was an official, tax-supported religion such as they still have today in the UK and Scandinavian countries.
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The courts also ignore the fact that, once upon a time, this separation of states v. federal powers was easily understood: the individual states all once indeed possessed an official tax-supported religion, because the First Amendment did not apply to them. Massachusetts was the last hold-out, which did away with it in 1833.
The villain in all this is constitutional ignorance, coupled with the false paradigm of thinking we must obey the courts. The oligarchy has fed us this through case law, media, academia and fake news for generations.
So, what of our state of Alaska? Where do we get our religious freedom? Well, it is not in the First Amendment of the federal constitution. If we were to accept an interference from a friendly, pro-religion president, we would be accepting the danger of federal “protection,” which eventually possess an “anti-religion” executive.
Only with institutional religions, when on rare occasions they have been pushed too far, can a governmental oppression be challenged.
Neither does it lie with the state constitution. Constitutions do NOT grant rights, but merely recognize pre-existing, God-given Natural Law with which they have promised not to interfere. Institutional religions generally do not understand Natural Law (which they should) nor constitutions, as we witness the COVID constitutional violations.
We have seen courageous rebellion within evangelical denominations. Most have local autonomy in their congregations, but this autonomy is also a problem as they are easily brushed aside by tyrants. Only with institutional religions, when on rare occasions they have been pushed too far, can a governmental oppression be challenged. We recently saw this when the Catholic and Lutheran bishops of Minnesota defied their governor.
However, the Catholic Church is currently suffering under a “Deep Church” authority, where the hierarchy is largely controlled by false shepherds who posture for the media and are attempting to remold it into conformity with the madness of the Democratic Party – a nefarious plan that Hillary Clinton permitted to slip out in a speech in 2016. So-called “mainline” Protestant denominations are generally compliant but as the Lutherans of Minnesota demonstrated, not always so.
The first step is the hardest: a surrender of ourselves to the Divine Will, who alone can defeat the evil around us…
Evangelicals need to forge an alliance, then, with Natural Law allies in other religions, most of whom are Catholic and Protestant, but some might even be Jewish and Muslim. But this is only a temporary solution.
The true solution for all is repentance and prayer. Repentance for the sins we have all committed, if not within ourselves then by complicity inside our own culture with a false tolerance. Abortion, divorce, contraception, alcohol and drug abuse, homosexuality, transgender madness, to name a few.
The first step is the hardest: a surrender of ourselves to the Divine Will, who alone can defeat the evil around us, but only through our own willingness to become his instruments. The habit of weekly worship and daily family prayer is a beginning. Only then can we begin to be the leaven in society that the Savior commanded us to become.
The writer was a candidate for U.S. Senate in 1990 and 2008, is a 43-year Alaskan, a retired public school teacher and currently a radio talk-show host of The Bird’s Eye View on KSRM in Kenai.
The views expressed here do not necessarily express those of the Alaska Watchman.
