Culture
A Dred Scott Moment in American History
This is an important week in American history–and I want you to feel its significance. I especially want you to pray for nine very important human beings as a result of your understanding.
I’m sure many of you remember the name of “Dred Scott” from the history books–but you may not recall the magnitude, the infamous nature of the name in American history.
The Dred Scott Decision was handed down by the United States Supreme Court on March 6, 1857 by a 7-2 vote stating that people of African descent brought into the United States and held as slaves (or their descendants, whether or not they were slaves) were not protected by the Constitution and were not U.S. citizens.
The decision was tragic–and flat-out wrong. It led to the Civil War and the death of 600,000 precious lives–all because nine US Supreme Court justices didn’t have the clarity to “judge righteously.”
This week we are faced with another Dred Scott moment. The US Supreme Court is hearing three days of arguments over Obamacare. African-American rights aren’t at stake here–but the rights and future of all of our citizens.
We don’t need another Dred Scott. We need nine individuals to do the right thing.
Those individuals, of course, are the current members of the United States Supreme Court. In recent “man in the street” interviews, I’ve notice how few people even know their names, let alone understand the power that they wield. Here the current US Supreme Court justices, in bullet form for emphasis:
- Chief Justice John Roberts, 57. Nominated by George W. Bush and sworn in 2005.
- Antonin Scalia, 76. Nominated by Ronald Reagan and sworn in 1986.
- Anthony Kennedy, 77. Nominated by President Reagan and sworn in 1988.
- Clarence Thomas, 63. Nominated by George H.W. Bush and sworn in 1991.
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 79. Nominated by Bill Clinton and sworn in 1993.
- Stephen Breyer, 73. Nominated by President Clinton and sworn in 1994.
- Samuel Alito, 61. Nominated by George W. Bush and sworn in 2006.
- Sonia Sotomayor, 57. Nominated by Barack Obama and sworn in 2009.
- Elena Kagan, 51. Nominated by President Obama and sworn in 2010.
Memorize those names: Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, Sotomayor, and Kagan. Let’s not be part of the uninformed.
These people are far more important than the following list of nine: Snookie, Gaga, Adele, Tiger, Kobe, Brad, Angelina, Bono, and Bieber.
However, what’s ironic (and a major problem in our culture) is that though I gave you just “one word names” in the second list, most of you probably know all of the people–but we don’t know the first or last names of our US Supreme Court justices who just might determine our national fate for years to come.
It’s true that most of the time, Supreme Court justices are fairly inconspicuous. Normally, the states and national Congress pass laws with little controversy so the judges can stay out of the limelight.
Not now. A liberal president–Senate–and House of 2006-2008–gave us a horrendous boondoggle of a bill that contained 2700 pages, created numerous new bureaucracies, would explode the national debt–and most importantly, takes away a number of our God-given liberties.
We need the Supreme Court on this one–and we don’t need them to give us another dreaded Dred Scott decision.
The justices are hearing arguments this week on the future of Obamacare–the massive progressive takeover of healthcare in this nation–representing one-sixth of the economy. At stake in the ruling are a number of complex and nuanced issues, but the heart of the matter is whether the Federal Government, under the Commerce Clause, has the right to force Americans to buy anything– including insurance.
If the justices get this wrong, it probably won’t start a civil war, but it could be the final straw in the coffin of our economic undoing.
A few days ago, we quietly “celebrated” the two-year anniversary of one of the worst laws in American history– The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act popularly known as Obamacare. No one has done a better job of capturing the essence of that ignominious event than John Hayward, one of my favorite columnists at the National Review.
Here is his astute analysis.
(By-the-way, Human Events puts out an excellent Daily Events e-mail of the best blogs or columns that saves a lot of time and reading. You can sign up for Daily Events here.
ObamaCare’s Lonely Birthday
He’s just a bill, sitting here on Capitol Hill
By John Hayward, March 23, 2012
“This week marks the second birthday of ObamaCare, among the greatest legislative disasters in American history. By even the most conservative estimates, its costs are more than double what we were originally promised.”
“It’s going to strip 20 to 50 million Americans of their health insurance, as overwhelmed employers decide the best course of action is dropping coverage altogether, with the resulting fines increasingly viewed as a wise investment to escape ObamaCare’s clutches. The President’s infamous promise that ‘if you like your plan, you can keep it’ has become a bitter joke, of the variety often traded across the Siberian snow.”
“ObamaCare has been causing health care costs to rise, and it will actually reduce our supply of doctors. It has already destroyed thousands of jobs, and it will soon unleash a fresh avalanche of job-killing taxes on job creators. It has destroyed religion and conscience, forcing Catholic institutions to pay for birth control, and even dropping an abortion surcharge upon everyone enrolled in plans that cover elective abortions.”
“Even as it devours American prosperity, liberty, and health, great festering chunks of spoiled legislation have been dropping from ObamaCare’s flanks. The CLASS Act is gone, as are some of ObamaCare’s most instantly repulsive feeding mechanisms, such as the scheme to force American small businesses to submit millions of 1099 tax forms every year. The House just voted to disable the death panels. Enraged Americans have watched Obama’s Health and Human Services Department issue thousands of ObamaCare waivers to politically connected businesses and labor unions.”
“The Supreme Court is on the verge of striking down the very heart of ObamaCare – the individual mandate that gives Congress limitless power to force Americans to purchase politically approved goods from selected private firms – as the Constitutional outrage it so clearly is.”
“Meanwhile, lopsided majorities of Americans favor the complete repeal of ObamaCare, and have consistently done so for years. It might be the best sustained polling ever seen for a policy preference. The latest Rasmussen poll has Americans favoring repeal 57-39 percent. Strong support for repeal reached an eight-month high in the wake of Obama’s war on the Catholic Church.”
“The Heritage Foundation has launched an online petition demanding ObamaCare repeal. If President Obama could somehow be persuaded to repeal the law, it would become, by a huge margin, the most successful job-creation initiative of his presidency.”
“Of course, that won’t happen… but it’s interesting to note that Obama doesn’t seem very eager to talk about his “signature achievement” any more. It’s swirling down the memory hole, along with those nostalgic sepia-toned photo-ops of the President touting Solyndra as one of the greatest successes of his trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ bill. “
“Give Obama another month, with a few more points shaved off his poll numbers, and he’ll be claiming ObamaCare wasn’t his initiative per se. Actually, he’ll start doing that the moment Mitt Romney secures the Republican nomination. Isn’t it funny that the sole political value of this towering legislative triumph lies in convincing voters that RomneyCare is just as bad?”
“The Republican National Committee does what the Obama Administration refuses to do, and commemorates the second anniversary of this melancholy bill with a video birthday greeting. Raise a glass of your favorite government-approved healthy beverage (soon to become a mandatory purchase, under the next wave of “individual mandates”) and celebrate ‘ObamaCare’s Lonely Birthday.'”
Well said.
Obamacare, from its inception, was an act of tyranny–a liberal dream to control the lives of three hundred million Americans. It doesn’t matter what the motivations were for such a bill–and maybe some were sincere. But the practical truth is that Obamacare will be the back-breaker of the American economy and the coup d’etat of sinking America into a European style social democracy.
If you like the future of Greece, or Italy, or Portugal in their present state–that’s the direction Obamacare takes us. It kills the free spirit of the American experiment in liberty.
There are only two final ways to resist the tyranny of Obamacare.
The first is to pray that the Supreme Court justices will see the light to either strike down the individual mandate in the legislation or the entire legislation. It is likely that Anthony Kennedy will be the deciding vote in a close Court decision. Pray for Justice Kennedy (and all the rest).
If the Court gives us another Dred Scott disaster–and it’s happened before in history–we do not need to pick up arms and go to war, but rather win at the polls in November. This is the final realistic option. We must elect a God-fearing, Constitution-honoring conservative majority in both the the US House of Representatives, the United States Senate, and also a US president committed to abolishing the law.
If Mitt Romney gains the Republican nomination, he is committed to doing so. (So are the other Republican contenders.)
But our first stop this week should be to watch the Supreme Court proceedings, pray for the presenters and the justices, and await their decision–which may come sometime this summer.
This is a Dred Scott moment in our history.
May our leaders choose wisely while we back them up in prayer.
Sobering Lessons from the Firing of Joe Paterno
I must admit that Coach Joe Paterno–a football coaching legend at Penn State for the past forty-six years–has been a hero of mine for decades. When he became PSU’s coach in 1965, I was just entering my junior high school years when sports was very important to me.
Coach Paterno made a deep impression. He seemed to be fair, disciplined, a man of integrity and faith, and he produced a great football program. In 2011 he became the winningest coach in all of Division I football history. In an age of slick and arrogant coaches, Joe Pa seemed to be the “Gold Standard” of steadiness and grace.
So when I heard he’d been fired because of some child abuse charges being leveled at a former assistant coach, I inwardly reacted like many Penn State students did. I thought to myself, “Discipline the offender but spare Coach Joe Pa!”
But I was wrong. Joe Paterno needed to go.
Here’s why–and many other things we can learn from the Penn State fiasco.
There was one primary reason I was wrong about Coach Paterno’s firing. I didn’t have the facts. You will never have good judgment about a person or event if you don’t know the truth.
For a few days I sympathized with Coach Paterno and felt that he should stay. Why should a legendary coach be punished for the sins of an assistant? We’d been told in the beginning that Coach Paterno had done his legal obligation. We were also told that he was not under investigation.
So I thought “Just let him finish out the year and then he can step down gracefully.”
One day later the Penn State board of trustees fired him.
How could that be? Was it fair, or just a knee-jerk reaction to an unpleasant situation?
Then I read the state grand jury report–in its entirety. I found it on-line and it came with a disclaimer that the contents of the report were graphic and needed to be looked at with caution.
They were right to warn us. The report turned my stomach.
But the truth set me straight: Joe Paterno needed to be fired.
If you have any doubts, here is the link to the damning realities that took place at Penn State from 1994 to 2009. Before you go there, let me lay out the basic scenario for you.
On November 5, 2011 former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, a one time heir apparent to Coach Paterno, was arrested and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on forty criminal charges. The grand jury report states that he raped and abused young boys between the age of ten and fourteen from at least 1994 to 2009.
Some of the serial sex abuse of minors took place on the Penn State campus and in its training rooms. At this point there are eight victims that have come forward. There may be many more.
All of Sandusky’s victims were recruited through a charity he had established called The Second Mile for children from foster or dysfunctional homes. Instead of helping these kids, Sandusky abused and used them for his own sexual pleasures.
In 1999, Sandusky retired from his Penn State duties but still held emeritus status at the college and had access to the athletic facilities. In the fall of 2000, a janitor walked in on Sandusky having sexual contact with a young boy called Victim 8. The janitor reported it to other janitors but a police report was never filed.
On March 1, 2002, a graduate assistant named Mike McQueary (who was on the Penn State coaching staff until forced to take a “leave of absence” just a week ago) saw a naked boy of about ten years old called Victim 2 being sexually assaulted by Sandusky in the Penn State shower room. McQueary was distraught and reported the news to Coach Paterno the next day.
On March 3, Joe Paterno called Tim Curley, Penn State’s athletics director to his home and reported a version of what his grad assistant had told him. Later in the month, McQueary was invited to a meeting with Curley and Gary Schultz, senior vice president for finances and business. The grad assistant reported what he had seen and Curley and Shultz said they would look into it.
On March 27, 2002 McQueary was informed that Sandusky’s locker room keys had been taken away and that the incident had been reported to The Second Mile (Sandusky’s charity). McQueary was never questioned by campus police and heard nothing about any follow-up until he was called to testify before the state grand jury in December, 2010.
Sandusky continued to seduce and rape young boys in his College Township home from 2002-2009. Finally, a boy named in the report as Victim 1, who was eleven or twelve when he met Sandusky, told authorities through a counselor that Sandusky inappropriately touched him several times in a four year period.
In September 2010 Sandusky retired from day to day involvement in The Second Mile charity.
Last week he was arrested, Curley, Schultz and Paterno were fired, McQueary was put on administrative leave, and the Penn State nightmare exploded on the national stage.
All because of one pedophile monster–who has ruined the lives of maybe dozens of young children–and because no one was willing to step forward and do what was right.
There are many sobering things we can learn from the Penn State debacle and actions that must be taken for the university to move forward:
1. We all must be willing to speak out and go to the police when we see a crime being committed. Child rape is a crime–one that can devastate a child for life. There were many people in the Penn State orbit who miserably failed to do their duty–including Coach Paterno. They may have reported what they saw to superiors above them, but that wasn’t good enough. They may have been legally right, but failed the moral test. We need to speak up against sin so that others cannot be hurt.
2. In our sex-crazed society, we must realize that pedophilia and many other sexual sins are not okay–they are brutal and traumatic to individuals and our nation as a whole. Especially the sexual exploitation of children–which takes many forms today including child trafficking and prostitution. We must repent of our sexual debauchery and especially work hard to protect the children.
3. We must admit that power and profits and not more important than individual lives. Each year the Penn State football program nets over 50 million dollars for the university. The athletic director and the vice president for finance did not want to get involved because they were afraid of losing money and prestige. Now they will lose scores of millions of dollars in future civil lawsuits. Your greed will find you out.
4. It takes a lifetime to build a good name, but it can be destroyed through one lapse of judgment. Joe Paterno is a great coach. But his legacy has now been tarnished forever. No matter how many games he won or the character he exhibited during a half century of coaching, it is all scarred now by one colossal act of mis-judgment. He should have followed up with his superiors. Kids were being raped! He should have gone to the police. Rather, he did his nominal part and walked away. It will cost him his legacy.
5. Penn State should release its entire football coaching staff and start over with a new group. It also might be a good idea to voluntarily restrict themselves from post-season play for a year or two to re-establish credibility in the eyes of the public. Some are calling for the shutting down of the football program for a period of time. That wouldn’t be fair to the current players. They shouldn’t suffer for the sins of Jerry Sandusky. However, there must be a house-cleaning to restore the PSU name and brand. That will take some wisdom, integrity and time.
I am really saddened by this story of sexual abuse and cover-up in the sports world. However, it does give us all a good opportunity to look in the mirror.
Most of us think we are pretty good people, or that we’ve been redeemed by God’s grace. But maybe some are harboring secret sins and moral miscalculations that God’s “grand jury report” will one day make plain to the world (it’s called Judgement Day).
When the facts are seen–the truth will be clear about our lives as well.
Only through Christ can our “good name” (and future) be restored.
(Click here to read the grand jury report on the case against Penn State.)
It’s Not Gridlock–It’s Game On! The Tea Party Vs. The Flea Party
Though I don’t agree with either the message or methods of the Occupy Wall Street crowd, I’m glad they’ve taken the field in America’s culture war.
For quite some time the mainstream media have told us that the problem in Washington, D.C. is gridlock–that our politicians just need to listen to one another, and then come up with some bi-partisan solutions to the nation’s problems.
We are told ad nauseam that political gridlock is the problem–that both conservatives and liberals are to blame–and that the answer is to heed the call for civility made by Rodney King in 1992:
“You know, can we all get along?”
But now thanks to Occupy Wall Street, the truth is clear: The game to shape America’s future is on–the teams have taken the field–and only one team can win. It’s a cultural clash that will end in victory for one side and defeat for the other.
For which side will you fight?
I think it’s helpful to compare the 2011-2012 US culture war to the American game of football. Two teams take the field. They go at one another for sixty minutes–there is back and forth, ebb and flow of the contest–bruises aplenty and even some serious injuries. In the end, only one team is the victor. The groups don’t compromise–they don’t work out a plan to make everybody happy.
They fight it out on the field and the best team wins. Real wars work the same way.
With the 2012 election looming, America is engaged in a desperate and serious struggle for its future. I know of a Christian leader who has a book coming out this fall who believes that the next president of the United States will affect history for good or evil for the next one hundred years.
Whether he right or not, this I do know: For the next thirteen months, the game is on.
Here’s my view of the contest.
Team One – The Tea Party
One team in America desires to renew America’s exceptional roots. This team is best symbolized by the Tea Party movement which burst on the scene in 2009 in response to the election of Barack Obama and his desire to take the nation in the direction of socially-democratic Europe. Spontaneous gatherings erupted around the nation of ordinary Americans, many in their middle and latter years, who carried a clear message to their elected officials of the need for reduced spending, lower taxes, and limiting the size and scope of government.
The Tea Party movement, like its revolutionary namesake, lit a fire for traditional Christian values and the type of limited government it produces. The movement got heavily involved in grass roots politics and saw landslide victories in the 2010 elections. In 2012 they hope to win the presidency, gain a majority in the US Senate, and retain the House of Representatives. They also understand the need for small government leadership in our towns, cities, and statehouses.
Tea Party activists–and the people who resonate with them–desire an America that acknowledges God in our public life, supports traditional values including marriage, free market capitalism, and our God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Justice is seen as creating a level playing field for all people where some can become successful if they choose–and others can settle for less if they desire.
In this Judeo-Christian worldview, every person is responsible before God for their outcomes in life. Character determines destiny. Government’s job is to protect people’s rights and punish evil both inside and outside our borders.
The Tea Party Team is the “home” team. They are historic America. They are composed of conservatives and independents with at least a memory of biblical ideas and how they made America great. They want to see those ideals flourish in our land again.
Team Two – The Flea Party
This is symbolized by the Occupy Wall Street crowd. The movement was recently nick-named by conservative columnist Ann Coulter. I’ll let her explain the meaning of the Flea Party moniker:
“So far, the only major accomplishment of the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protesters is that they have finally put an end to their previous initiative, ‘Occupy Our Mothers’ Basements.'”
“Oddly enough for such a respectable-looking group — a mixture of adolescents looking for a cause, public sector union members, drug dealers, criminals, teenage runaways, people who have been at every protest since the Berkeley Free Speech Movement… they can’t even explain what they’re protesting.”
“The protesters either treat inquiries about their purpose as a trick question, or — worse — instantly rattle off a series of insane causes: “No. 1, abolish capitalism; No. 2, because 9/11 was an inside job; No. 3, because Mumia is innocent …”
“Curiously, the only point universally agreed upon by the protesters and their admirers in the Democratic Party and the mainstream media is that “Occupy Wall Street” should be compared to the tea party. Yes, that would be the same tea party that has been denounced and slandered by the Democratic Party and the mainstream media for the last three years.”
“As a refresher: The Democratic National Committee called the tea partiers ‘angry mobs’ and ‘rabid right-wing extremists.’ ABC said they were a ‘mob.’ CNN accused them of ‘rabble rousing.’ Harry Reid called them ‘evil mongers.’ Nancy Pelosi said they were ‘un-American.'”
“But apparently liberals couldn’t even convince themselves that tea partiers were an extremist group unworthy of emulation. At least they’re embarrassed about what the OWS protesters really are: wingless, bloodsucking and parasitic. This is the flea party, not the tea party.”
Ann’s not far off. Just look at the current protests. They’re made up of primarily young people and older hippie-types who seem to enjoy slamming the system. They were joined–and many even paid to protest– by some labor organizations and communist/socialist groups backed by the progressive pockets of George Soros.
The Flea Party wants to destroy America as we know it. They are the “visiting” team who do not believe in our history. Though their message might be jaded by too much marijuana inhalation, they want bigger government, taking money from the rich and giving it to others, cradle-to grace entitlements, and I guess–a socialist utopia like, say, the Soviet Union! (Whoops–wrong example. That didn’t end well… How about Venezuela, Cuba, or North Korea?).
Interestingly, our current Democratic leaders are embracing the Flea Party. President Obama might have launched the movement himself with his incessant class warfare rhetoric over the past few months. It could be a re-election strategy: Take attention off the dismal moral and financial problems facing our nation–he can’t run on his record–and blame the greedy fat cats on Wall Street! (Whoops again–Wall Street gave historic amounts of money to Barack Obama in 2008…Oh well, people might not remember.)
The Flea Party is a cultural team devoted to secular values. They want God and his prudish morals out of America and demand a Bigger Uncle Same to play Robin Hood–to take from the rich and give to the poor. They’re willing to start a violent revolution if necessary (a la Europe?) to bring about transformative change. This team is mostly made up of liberal progressives and left-leaning independents. They want Big Government to level and control the playing field.
But Erick Erickson of redstate.com has a better solution:
“The point is not that we now need to punish those big businesses. The point is that we need to re-level the playing field and make it a fair competition between entrepreneur and corporation again. We need big business to stop living off the taxpayer dole. We need a new age of corporate welfare reform like the welfare reform of the 1990s.”
“The playing field has been tilted toward the big businesses because they are the only ones who had the capital to stay ahead of government regulations and new government burdens, and the influence to bend new laws in their direction. The playing field does not need to be tipped back in favor of others. Just level it. An upright tower build on a slope will topple the moment the slope is laid flat.”
The Referees
Every football games has its refs, and our present titanic clash is no exception. At the present time, the majority of the referees are the liberal mainstream media who demean the Tea Party and sympathize with the Flea Party. They support Barack Obama and want to see America permanently changed. They’re similar to the referees of the 2006 Super Bowl between the Steelers and the Seahawks who said they were neutral but really favored Pittsburgh on a number of controversial calls.
Seattle coach Mike Holgren said at that time that he expected to play the Steelers–not the men in black and white stripes. I feel the same today. Media bias makes it very difficult for the Tea Party traditionalists to win.
However, the emergence of Fox News and conservative radio has placed a few other refs on the field that could influence the outcome.
But it’s still an uphill battle.
For the next thirteen months these two teams and their philosophical allies will be fighting it out on the gridiron of the American destiny. Only one team will win. The wild card of this contest is which side will God’s people join. Will they pray and get involved to bring the United States back to its godly roots? Or will the Church unwittingly support the dissolving of our godly heritage?
It’s time to think clearly. This is not about gridlock. The game is on. One team will win and the other will lose.
It’s that simple and that profound.
I hope we choose wisely. Our future hangs in the balance.