於2020-03-30發佈


異象與分歧—美國遺產概要9

不同於一般所相信的,美國憲法沒有一處提到一定要政教分離。在憲法第一修正案中只有簡短提到聯邦政府與宗教的關係,說到:「國會不得制定建立宗教的法律,或者禁止其自由行使。」

這怎麼會誤解為憲法命令政教分離變得如此盛傳,導致徹底改變美國,摧毀了我們的宗教自由?司布真曾悲嘆道,他可以找到十個願意為聖經而死的人,他們當中卻不是每個人都願意讀聖經。我們可能有十個人宣誓就職要捍衛憲法,當中甚至不是每個人都讀過憲法,有勇氣捍衛憲法的人又更少了。 

我們事工的律師在法律學院曾修過憲法,他們的課堂上卻沒有一次提到憲法,只有研讀最高法院決策和判例!所以我們不能假設我們的律師、法官,甚至大法官真的明白憲法。

倘若開國元老意圖所謂的政教分離,為何國會的首要行動之一是提供在美國印刷聖經呢?為何當國會得到新首都大廈使用權時,首要行動是授權作為教會崇拜的用途呢?在首度大廈聚會的教會很快成為華盛頓首府最大的教會,總統、大部分國會議員與政府工作人員都去那教會主日。

現在,當政治人物宣稱要捍衛憲法,他們很可能正在做破壞憲法的事。沒照著他們所應當的來瞭解憲法,就是在他們最基本的責任上最嚴重的怠忽職守,為國家帶來極大的傷害。

許多書提到最高法院的決策違反憲法,其中一些違憲法案被翻盤,但許多違憲法案被建立在其他越發極端的決策上,對國家造成破壞,竊取了我們最基本且最寶貴的自由。我們會在之後的美國遺產概要中談到,但對於政教分離的欺騙與謬論,只是錯誤被強加在美國的其中一個例子,卻可能是代價最高的一個。

當社運型法官能夠逃脫於此,他們似乎以為可以逃脫任何事,因為好像沒有人真正看重憲法。或許其中最大的欺騙是,那些被選上或被任命進入法院的人,事實上知道自己在做什麼。現在連被提名競選公職的過程都腐敗到,讓真正稱職與正直的人不會參與如此扭曲的過程。

民主化過程總是會變得混亂和沒有效率,正如邱吉爾曾說:「民主是最糟的政府型態,相較於其他已存的卻是最好的。」不管民主有多壞,仍比其他選擇更好。即便如此,我們不需要接受美國政府所跌落的功能不彰。那麼,我們可以做些什麼?

幾乎每個政府危機的起因,以及在我們土地越來越多的分裂,都是因為偏離憲法中所蘊含的智慧。對這些危機的解答是回到憲法,然後我們需要測試每一個政府強行通過的法案或條例,確保其不違反憲法。要這樣做並非太難,憲法與人權法案很短,一般讀者大約一小時可以讀完。

有些人爭論,我們應當不管憲法,宣稱它已經過時了,由一些農耕社會的人所寫成,並不適用於我們目前所處的現代社會。一個人只要去讀憲法和人權法案,就不會做出這種錯誤的推論。憲法的智慧是跨時代的,由一群學識淵博與無比睿智的人所寫成,他們瞭解人類本性,以及權力對其所帶來的敗壞。

開國父老在政府內部豎立權力平衡和防火牆來抵擋權力腐敗的可能性,它包含了機智的文化洩壓閥,得以釋放來自社會議題衝突的危險高壓。這些允許對想要這麼做的人進行調整與改變,而不用將其強加於不想這麼做的人。

其中最重要的是,憲法建立並保護我們的自由,限制聯邦政府中央集權的能力,以三權分立的方式建立違反平衡的檢驗,這是有政府以來從沒有過的構思。然而,現在違憲的類型已經很難被開國父老所識別,或任何以憲法眼光來看的人。

聯邦政府只有在憲法中有被特別給予其合法權柄,沒有特別給予聯邦政府的則歸屬於州政府與人民。憲法沒有一處給予聯邦政府關於宗教、社會或文化議題的權柄。這些議題是由對人民最具影響的州政府與地方政府來解決,人民也能在這些地方有更多的參與。

倘若這些重大社會議題是按著憲法委任的方式被提出來,今日的美國也不太會有社會與文化上的不和了。由於沒有依據憲法來解決這些問題,現在壓力已經大到威脅我們作為一個國家的存亡了。

聯邦政府已經跨越太多憲法所給予的權限,每一個領域這樣做所造成的問題,很快成長為重大危機。危機的一個定義是:病入膏肓到可以決定病患的生死。不需要先知看見,我們的國家現在已經病入膏肓了。

我們現在已經違背憲法,開國父老的每個嚴重警告都在說,共和國無法存活。美國就像一個病患,病到需要搶救我們的手術可能會殺了我們。我們若試圖一次修補所有問題,這可能會成真。所以,我們要怎麼做呢?

首先,我們不能失去盼望。我們的景況可能超過人類解藥,但我們所事奉的神在祂沒有難成的事。我們可以說,幾乎目前所有的危難,都是從我們違憲將禱告從學校移除開始的。我們必須要求聯邦政府遵守憲法第一修正案權利:不禁止在美國自由行使宗教,回轉尊榮我們的上帝,正如憲法所提出的。

大約有八成的美國人承認相信上帝,社運型法官允許少數無神論與不可知論者宣稱,被我們尊榮上帝的方式所冒犯,偷竊美國大眾自由行使宗教的權利。雖然我們應尋求尊重所有人的權利,包括少數族群,但利用任何群體來壓制其餘人的權利便是暴政。

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~摘錄美國獨立宣言作者與第三任總統─湯馬斯·傑弗遜Thomas Jefferson)~

對暴政的反抗便是對神的順服。

~摘錄美國開國元老,「常識」是他最具影響力的書─湯馬斯·潘恩Thomas Paine)~

暴政,就像地獄,並不容易攻克;但我們擁有此慰藉:就是衝突越艱鉅,勝利也越光榮。

 (摘自喬納word for the week, Week 9, 2020)
 

Vision and Division—Heritage Brief 9

Contrary to common belief, nowhere does The United States Constitution state that there must be a separation of church and state. There is only one brief statement in the First Amendment that addresses the relationship between the federal government and religion, which says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” 

How has this misconception that The Constitution mandates a separation of church and state become so prevalent as to so radically change the country and destroy our religious liberty? Charles Spurgeon lamented that he could find ten men who would die for The Bible for every one that would read it. We may have ten people taking office swearing to defend The Constitution for every one that has even read it, much less has the courage to defend it. 

Our lawyers took Constitutional Law in law school, and they never once referred to The Constitution itself, but only studied Supreme Court decisions and precedents! So we cannot presume that lawyers, judges, or even justices actually know it.

If the Founders intended to have the so-called separation of church and state, why was one of the first acts of Congress to provide for the publishing of The Bible in America? And why was one of the first acts of Congress when it occupied the new capital building to authorize it to be used for church services? The church that met in the capital building quickly became the largest church in Washington, with the President, most of the members of Congress, and other government employees attending. 

Now, when a politician claims to be defending The Constitution, it is likely they are doing something to undermine it. To not know The Constitution better than they do is a most grievous dereliction of duty in regard to their most basic responsibility, and it has brought great damage to the country. 

Many books have been written on Supreme Court decisions that violated The Constitution. Some of these violations have been reversed, but many have been built upon with other decisions that became increasingly extreme and damaging to the country, robbing us of our most basic and precious freedoms. We will cover these in future briefs, but this deception and fallacy about the separation of church and state is just one that has been wrongly imposed on the nation, but it may be the most costly. 

As the activist judges have been able to get away with this one, they seemed to think they could get away with anything, and since seemed to have almost no regard for the actual Constitution. Perhaps the biggest delusion of all is that those who get elected to public office, or appointed to courts, actually know what they’re doing. The process that has evolved by which people are even nominated to run for office is now so corrupted that the truly competent and honorable people who could do the job well will not get involved in such a perverted process. 

The democratic process was always going to be messy and inefficient. As Winston Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all others.” As bad as it can be, it is still better than the alternatives. Even so, we do not have to settle for the level of dysfunction that our U.S. Government has fallen to. So, what can we do?

The cause of almost every crisis of government, and the increasing divisions in our land, are the result of departing from the wisdom found in our Constitution. The answer to these crises is to return to The Constitution. Then we should have a basic test for every law passed or regulation imposed by our government to be sure it complies with The Constitution. This would not be hard to do. The Constitution and Bill of Rights are short and can be read in an hour by the average reader.

Some argue that we should disregard The Constitution, claiming that it is archaic, written for an agrarian people, and it does not fit the modern world we now live in. Just one reading of The Constitution and Bill of Rights will dispel such flawed reasoning. The wisdom in our Constitution is ageless, written from a profound and possibly unmatched brilliant understanding of human nature and what corrupts those in power.  

The Founders set up balances of power and firewalls in the government to resist the corrupting potential of power. It contained brilliant cultural relief valves for releasing dangerously high pressure from conflicts on social issues. These allowed for adjustments and change for those who wanted them, without imposing them on those who did not. 

Most important of all, The Constitution establishes and protects our freedoms. It limited the centralizing of power in the Federal Government and set up counter-balancing checks in the three branches of it, which had never before been conceived of in a government. However, the form that it has now taken by violating The Constitution would be hard to recognize by the Founders, or anyone who looked at it in the light of The Constitution.

The Federal Government only has legal authority that is specifically given to it in The Constitution. What is not specifically given to it remains the authority of the states and the people. Nowhere does The Constitution give the Federal Government any authority over religious, social, or cultural issues. These were issues that were to be worked out on the state and local level where they impacted people the most and where the people themselves could be more engaged. 

If these important social issues had been addressed the way that The Constitution mandated, we would not have nearly the social and cultural discord in the nation today. By not addressing these according to The Constitution, the pressure has built to a point that it now threatens our continued existence as one nation. 

         The Federal Government has gotten far outside the lane given to it by The Constitution. Every area that it has done this has caused problems that quickly grew into major crises. One of the definitions of a crisis is the point in a disease that it is determined if the patient will live or die. It does not take a prophet to see that our country is now at that point. 

         We have now violated The Constitution and every serious warning the Founders said the Republic could not survive. America is close to being like a patient that is so sick that the operation required to save us would kill us. This may be true if we tried to fix everything at once. So, how do we do it? 

         First, we cannot lose hope. We may be beyond human remedy, but we serve the God for which nothing is impossible. We can mark almost all of the present distress as beginning at the very time prayer was unconstitutionally removed from our schools. We must demand that the Federal Government obey our First Amendment right to not prohibit the free exercise of religion in America and return to honoring God in our country, as The Constitution provided for.

         About 80% of Americans acknowledge belief in God. Activist judges allowed a handful of atheists and agnostics who claimed to be offended by the way we honored God to steal the rights of the overwhelming majority of Americans to freely exercise their religion. While we should seek to respect the rights of all, minorities included, to use the offense of any group to suppress the rights of the rest is tyranny. 

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Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. –Thomas Jefferson

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. –Thomas Paine, author with the American Founding Fathers of one of the most influential books, Common Sense.