SCORE ONE FOR FREEDOM BUT OBAMA’S WAR CONTINUES

By James Wilson

             The Supreme Court has decked Barack Obama in recent days.  They decided by a 5-4 majority that requiring Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Products to provide abortion services – clearly violating their faith – defies the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the First Amendment.  They likewise declared states and localities may not bar free speech from public walkways in front of abortion clinics – or anywhere.  Leftist talk show hosts mock the decision they say permits citizens to nullify federal law.  Truth is the decision forbids government to nullify State and Federal Constitutions.  Others claim an American launching a business must play by the rules and not by his conscience.  Truth is the First Amendment prohibits rules that trump religious conscience.  These decisions are a big home run for freedom of faith, albeit decided in a very narrow context; the Hobby Lobby decision applies to “closely held” or – in English – family owned corporations. 

            This is not a bad thing.  Courts traditionally limit their decisions to matters and interests actually brought before them.  Future decisions in subsequent cases should follow the line of thinking in the Citizens United case – decided in 2010 – so eventually no company will be forced to violate the faith of founders and owners to satisfy a law attacking the Bill of Rights.

            The Court uanimously rolled back the Obama appointments to the Federal Labor Relations Board absent senate approval, another score for freedom.  The separation of powers doctrine forbids one branch of government to ride roughshod over another; that riding is how dictatorships, monarchies, and caliphates are established.  But the president, in a dizzying display of arrogance, simply announces his next bypass of Congress and dares the rest of us to stop him.  His war against the nation that gave him all he has continues.

            The man who would be king announces if Congress will not enact the immigration reform he wants it he will continue to bypass them.  In other words, although the Supreme Court has told him he is not the supreme law of the land, he declares he will continue to act as though he is.  He refers to a range of actions/inactions from declaring amnesty for illegals here long enough to suit him to assassination of American citizens abroad declining to rescue American citizens being abused in foreign lands.  (Marines Armando Torres and Andrew Tahmoressi are held prisoner in Mexico and one of the murdered Israeli teens was an American citizen.)  He dared Congress to sue him while speaking in the Rose Garden.

            The subtext of this presidential bullying is the notion that if no one else will do the right thing he will.  His attitude pre-supposes he is right and he alone is authorized to decide the right.  He depends on the reality that challenges to his arrogance take years to percolate through the courts.  In a nation of laws none of this will wash; in a culture of entitlement that worships at the altar of feel-good it does.  Both left and right have periodically worshipped at that altar; today it is all from the left.  What do we do?

            Dinesh D’Souza says in his new film, America, we do not have a Washington, Lincoln, or Reagan at this time; but we do have us.  I would add to that, “We Americans have always had us and we have always had the Lord Jesus Christ, His Abba, and His Spirit – when we acknowledge them.  They made Washington, Lincoln and Reagan the heroes they became; they will make us the men and women we are called to become.”           

            Jesus Christ Himself says if His people acknowledge Him He will acknowledge – uphold – them.  This implies a continuing commitment to play by the legitimate rules – to not become the travesty we oppose.  If this looks like an exercise in futility, I remember an exercise in personal futility some time ago.  I was called by God to protest the consecration of an apostate bishop.  I knew I would be alone and ridiculed.  The rules gave me right and responsibility to read a statement; the rule keepers denied me that right.  I left the building wondering why God insisted I make such a wasted gesture.  I wondered until my statement – unspoken during the service – went virile and rounded the globe on the internet.  People still approach me respectfully, saying, “So you’re the guy who…”

            We are called by our God to stay in this game for the long haul.  It is a marathon and not a sprint.  And our God says He will never leave us.  Do we believe Him?  Is there anyone or anything else worth believing?