Something to Think About . . .
Home About Us Calendar Contact Us Links The ECF Pulpit Pastor's Blog Elders' Perspectives Adorn the Doctrine Eclectic Ecclesiastics Missions		by Rev. Albert Rhodes "Rusty" Stuart On Wednesday, 26 July, 2000, I learned that the Federal District covering part of Kentucky has enjoined the Commonwealth's General Assembly from in anyway promoting the creation of monument on public property bearing the Ten Commandments upon it. Further, I have read in several places of the Rev. Barry Lynn's opposition to the public posting in the nation's schools of the national motto "In God We Trust" for representing a government mandated promotion of religion. Recently, a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister in Ohio successfully protested that state's motto based upon Matthew 19:26 on the grounds that it too violated the separation clause of the First Amendment and must be considered as a forbidden form of state sponsorship of religion. As a matter of fact, in the Kentucky case, U.S. District Judge Joseph Hood opined in his ruling that "I think the purpose of this is not secular. I think it's religious, . . . It's admirable that people want the Ten Commandments up. . . (but) this would give anyone the impression that the Commonwealth of Kentucky had expressed its faith in the Ten Commandments." Well, We can't have that now, can we!?! So, in the wake of these multiple actual and proposed court challenges to state and national mottoes and to the basis and framework of all our jurisprudence, I feel compelled to jump into the fray, make the following observation and plea and join the fracas to protect the world from myself: In the spirit of utterly secularized and sanitized democratic republicanism I observe that our roots are faulty and our republic built upon a false premise, that when exposed, shows we are not what we perceive ourselves to be. Our republic dates itself from the signing and adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. This congress was the accepted government of its day (and therefore the "Controlling Legal Authority"). This Congress did with malice of forethought declare the following as the raison d'Ítre for our existence that "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;." Now, in our more enlightened society, we realize that this assumption is, of itself, a flawed proposition. And being that this proposition is flawed, it must then invalidate the declaration itself. We enlightened moderns now know that rights do not devolve from any supernatural Creator (since none can exist or be acknowledged within a secular democratic republic) but are self-endowed by the autonomous reason and innate natural capacities and capabilities of the several individuals who comprise the body of the whole. Since this is so, we are left to reason that the declaration itself, regardless how selflessly motivated, is spurious. Logical, philosophical and ethical consistency then require us to declare the document itself null and void. For this reason, we Christians, (with myself offering humble leadership as a mainline Presbyterian minister) must take the high road. We must join in with and complete the quest of our co-religionist in the Buckeye State (who successfully challenged the egregiously unfair and evil state motto there) and must complete his work. Toward that end, I propose (and offer my leadership for) a national crusade to set the balances to rights. Let us severally join together to file multiple lawsuits in multiple Federal Districts and Circuits to have the Federal Bench declare the Declaration of Independence unconstitutional because it is an inherently religious political document that flies in the face of the established judicial canons and doctrines of our times. Further, let us petition the judiciary to declare the Constitution null and void because it is based upon that false premise (because an inherently religious one advocated by the former Controlling Legal Authority). Subsequent to this and devolving from it, we must petition that the United States be returned in toto to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with a declaration that the state of rebellion and revolution against the crown has, after two-and-a-quarter centuries been declared to be surrendered, ceased and desisted. In all honesty, if the federal judiciary is consistent with its own principles, this really is the only honest course of action, and we as Christians bound by Romans 13 must be fully willing and ready to embrace and swallow it. So . . . Who's ready and willing to join me on this quixotic idiot's quest to make democracy safe for monarchical parliamentary rule (ah, come on, join me. The House of Commons is far more fun to watch on C-SPAN anyway. The MPs and Speaker are so much more nattily dressed. And besides who ever saw the opposition give the Speaker of the House a collective Razzberry in that stodgy and funny looking institution on Capitol Hill?). So, everyone straight on what we're supposed to do, here? Good. Now let's get busy. To arms! Sisters and Brothers. We must make democracy safe from us. Let us join and promote the 'Holy" quest for the wholly autonomous natural self. Grace & Peace, the Rev. Albert Rhodes Stuart, pastor, Rock Stream Presbyterian & Lakemont Congregational Churches
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