Constitution Day: Celebrated, But Is the Foundational Document Doomed?

From Alliance Defense Fund and Advancing Religious Liberty:

Sep 17,2010, 10:29AM


’C-Day’ or ‘D-Day’? Constitution Day Celebrated, but Is Foundational Document Doomed?

By Alliance Defense Fund

Author: ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley



Is the U.S. Constitution really a “living, breathing document”? Or are judges and legislators who just don’t like it simply engaging in revisionism to create what they think is a more “sophisticated,” “free-thinking,” and “tolerant” way of viewing the world?



Just as the 2,000 years that have gone by since the New Testament, for example, was written doesn’t make the principles of that book any less relevant and authoritative today, the 200 years since the Constitution was written should not dispose anyone to consider this nation-shaping document as alterable as a book of Mad Libs.



Our historical arrogance these days would be amusing if it weren’t so problematic.

Today marks Constitution Day – celebrating the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787, by 39 of our nation’s founders, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton. But with new waves of judges, legislators, politicians, and bills pounding our courtrooms and ballot boxes, the document that’s successfully rooted our nation in Judeo-Christian values and laws for centuries is quickly being eroded. Renegade judges ruling from the bench, left-leaning political activists, and radical groups like the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State have been systematically tearing down the constitutional and moral foundation of America.



As the very fabric of our nation is being stripped, the need for our judges and politicians to respect and uphold the Constitution as authoritative and not negotiable apart from the amendment process it allows has never been greater. But how has America so readily allowed the pages from one of our most foundational documents to be erased and penciled over? A growing number of Americans aren’t even aware of what this weighty manuscript that shapes our society actually says, let alone what its writers intended.



Case in point: most Americans don’t know that the so-called “separation of church and state” is nowhere to be found in the Constitution and that the phrase was actually used by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Baptists in Danbury, Conn., to reassure them that government wouldn’t unduly intervene in church matters. But with diligent efforts and the consistent pounding of messaging by anti-constitutional groups like the ACLU and AU, many of our citizens are convinced that the government and its auspices can have nothing to do with religion in any context whatsoever. Because of this misunderstood “wall,” many are also led to believe that churches cannot speak on important political and social issues without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status – another fallacy.



So, on this Constitution Day, I would say that the best way we can all celebrate is to get reacquainted with what our foundational document actually says. Why? If we don’t know our constitutional rights and freedoms, we are setting ourselves up to have them easily trampled and taken away, which can have the effect of silencing our beliefs and the Gospel.