God, Law & Liberty Podcast: Recent Episodes
David Fowler
God, Law, and Liberty is a podcast of the Family Action Council of Tennessee featuring David Fowler. We seek to educate listeners on matters of law and current issues relating to how we understand liberty and the Constitution per a Christian worldview. For years, FACT has been engaged with members of the Tennessee General Assembly in advocating for life, marriage, family values, and religious liberty issues in our state. As a family policy council, we are tackling head-on, current issues that have a national impact such as same-sex marriage, abortion, transgenderism, and other issues related to what we consider God's design for the family. How we address these issues in our culture in terms of how we treat them in law will have an impact for generations to come. Please join us on this journey.
Today David offers a second way in which a number of Christians seem to have lost touch with Christ when it comes to politics, law, and public policy. It shocked the Pharisees of old, and it will probably shock today's political pharisees. Find out what it is.
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Is there evidence that a number of Christian political candidates (Republican mostly) and a number of the Christians who support them have, in Abraham Kuyper's words, "lost touch with Christ"? Would the Apostle Paul say to them, "Oh foolish Christians, who has bewitched you?" Today David looks at how our view of justification and sanctification affects our view of politics and what it can accomplish.
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The question headlining today’s topic comes from Abraham Kuyper’s opening remarks at the First Christian Social Conference convened in the Netherlands in 1891. The news this week makes it clear that our nation is facing the same "social question" addressed by him at that conference: Is socialism or communism a better way to order our social relations in regard to material possessions? What is the Christian’s answer?
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Today, David offers his final reflection on our nation’s 250th anniversary by taking a look at what happened to "created equal" on the way to the 21st Century. He uses the insights from two speeches given by Abraham Kuyper at the turn of the 19th century to offer a corrective he believes the church must make if there are going to be another 250 years under our original written Constitution.
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Today David traces the meaning of the terms "state" and "republic" prior to 1776 through the constitutional revolutions throughout Europe in 1848 to what republic means now in light of the No Kings protest and use of the term "democratic republic." The change in meaning is very revealing, telling Christians what must change in politics, law, and the church.
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Today's episode compares what is said in the Declaration of Independence about how civil governments are "instituted" and for what purpose to what was said on those subjects by John Locke in the late 17th century and Abraham Kuyper at the end of the 19th century. It also offers a vision for how Christians today can be, as William Bradford said, "stepping stones" for continuing the work the Pilgrims at Plymouth set out to do.
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Today David gives his answer to whether the following statement in the Declaration of Independence is more influenced by enlightenment hubris than sound Christian theology: “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." The difference between the one and the other is manifest in a new version he's authored and would encourage future generations to bring to fruition.
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Today, David applies the Apostle Paul's declaration that true wisdom and knowledge are found in the revelation of “the mystery of God, of the Father and of Christ” (Colossians 2:3) to a famous sentence sentence in the Declaration of Independence often quoted by Christians. He asks: Have Christians been taken captive by philosophies of men? Today he documents the philosophy of the time the Declaration was written to set the stage for the answer and way forward that he releases tomorrow.
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In today's episode, David explains why he believes some well-intentioned Christian political advocates, notably in regard to the politics of abortion, have been taken captive by the empty traditions and philosophies of men that are “not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8). He says why he thinks enacting "righteous" statutes is not really the issue: It's far bigger than many Christians realize.
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Recent episodes have put an emphasis on growing in our knowledge of Christ in relation to how Christians should think about certain abortion legislation being proposed nationally. But shouldn't that apply to the way Christians legislators think and talk about law and public policy advocacy generally, or even a Christian with a neighbor? What might that look like? Two passages of Scripture and a comment by John Owen provide an answer, and David offer two challenging applications of it.
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Today David considers the response to pro-life apologist Scott Klusendorf published by the Foundation to Abolish Abortion (FAA), proponents of legislation presented in multiple states under the rhetoric of "equal protection" for the unborn. Some of FAA leaders want the SBC to take up the issue next week. What wisdom does FAA offer? What do we find of Christ in its counsel?
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How is it that Christ was "MADE unto us wisdom" and how does that affect our understanding of wisdom when it comes to political issues? Today, David uses 17th century theologian John Owen to help us understand the "why" and "how" of wisdom, and then applies that to the published political counsel of long-time pro-life apologist Scott Klusendorf against enacting legislation to indict abortive mothers for felony murder, championed by the Foundation to Abolish Abortion (FAA) and Christian podcaster, Seth Gruber.
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Today's publication is intended to help you evaluate whether a rather standard kind of constitutional argument made by Christian legal advocates accords with Scripture's definition of wisdom. David explains how he came to understand "spiritual wisdom" and offers that for comparison to the wisdom provided by National Right to Life's General Counsel about challenging Roe v. Wade
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Today's episode jumps directly into the introduction of nationally respected law professor Adam MacLeod and his testimony before the Tennessee Senate's judiciary committee in 2019. His testimony supported pro-life legislation I had drafted to challenge Roe v. Wade. It is a critical primer on the relationship of common law to the forgotten Ninth Amendment, and their relationship to the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. His testimony explains what the U.S. Supreme Court got wrong in justifying abortion. It is also the path forward for states to have the unborn declared a legal person with a right to life.
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Today’s episode is in lieu of one on Friday because of the importance of federal court decisions over the last four days. I address the importance of understanding recent decisions by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and SCOTUS regarding the FDA's rule allowing mifepristone (RU-486) to be dispensed by mail. What could a favorable mean for ending the scourge of abortion in the United States? The answer may surprise you.
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David uses his misguided reason for running for office and Puritan theologian John Owen to explain what he believes is the most important consideration when it comes to Christian political engagement and often get’s lost. He will close by applying it to the political firestorm raised in several states by the end-abortion-now movement.
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These brief thoughts of John Owen (1616-1683) on the glory of Christ are not just excellent, but they will be an aid to better appreciating Friday's publication. I will address what I see is most needed and yet often lacking in Christian political engagement, particularly in the present debates over abortion policies.
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David hopes last week's publication left you wondering what Christians are to do if our way of seeing the world has allowed politics to become disproportionately important. That's today's topic. As a way forward, David offers his personal political story, examples drawn from his recent politics experiences, and Hosea's instructive, probative, and sobering words and their application.
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David uses a Scriptural metaphor to explain what he sees missing in the way Christians understand our times. And he explains how it has affected the approach to politics taken by both end-abortion-now advocates and traditional right to life advocates. At a fundamental level, they seem to be the same.
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Today, David takes the next step in what we began to cover last week — what it might look like to be spiritually minded (Romans 8:6) in trying to apply the juridical aspects of the “law of Moses” to political issues such as the current push to criminalize abortive mothers. The spiritually-minded may find in today's episodes some consideration that make doing that harder than some might think it is.
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When it comes to legislation, many Christians look to the "law of Moses" to flesh out what is right and wrong and, increasingly, to determine what sanctions should be applied to certain wrongful acts. It is part of the "whole counsel of God," but is there a way to flesh out this law out that is "spiritually minded" vis-a-vis "fleshly" or even "carnally" minded? Today, David offers a context for thinking about those laws that he believes is spiritually minded, and begins to apply it to legislative efforts to "end abortion now."
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Today’s short limited edition is an excerpt drawn from John Owen’s treatise, The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded." It is an important precursor to this coming Friday’s episode in which I will begin to offer my application of this excerpt to present efforts to end abortion now. We must be "spiritually minded" (Romans 8:6) about the subject of law, because "law is spiritual" (Romans 7:14). Owen addresses a deceitful allure that can keep Christians from being so minded.
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Today David looks at how some theonomists and abortion abolitionist might respond to what he said last week about Paul's 3-point summary given Timothy of what obeying the law of God means. Is it antinomian? To that end he considers what Paul meant when he told Timothy that some who desire to be teachers of the law don't use it lawfully because they neither understand what they say or what they affirm.
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If we say with the Apostle Paul that "law is spiritual" can't that lead to antinomianism? Does a fear of antinomianism lurk behind the thinking of some theonomists? Is it behind the rhetoric of some abortion abolitionists who recently castigated all who did not think that Tennessee's legislators should make an abortive mother indictable either for first or second degree murder? Paul gives all those interested in law and public policy something to chew on.
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Without a sound Biblical content to the words, "image of God," the term becomes a shibboleth, something of little importance. Without that, today's policy debates become equivocal, and Christians can’t fully appreciate why Paul wrote that “the law is spiritual” (Romans 7:14). So, what is the image of God. That is the focus of today's episode.
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Certain events in Tennessee on Tuesday prompted me to release this SPECIAL and ABBREVIATED episode of GLL. It will be helpful to some who were the object of those events. However, it is also a helpful as a supplement to recent podcasts and a precursor to Friday’s.
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Today's episode considers an aspect of “the law of God” that is often overlooked when it comes thinking about proposed legislation that would conform to it. In the coming weeks, this aspect of the law of God will be applied to two legislative proposals: One that would again impose criminal sanctions on an abortive mother and one that would define the martial relationship as one man and one woman.
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This week Jason Farley returns to lay the final jurisdictional footer for building a Christian understanding of God's law, its purpose, and how it informs the way Christians use the jurisdiction God has given them in the legal and policy spheres. Find out why the key to understanding the two objectively real dominions we must deal with in law and politics -- of sin and of grace -- is, in Jason's words, that "everything is connected."
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This week Jason Farley helps me lay the final jurisdictional footer for building a Christian understanding of God's law, its purpose, and how it informs the way Christian use the jurisdiction God has given them in the legal and policy spheres. Find out why the key to understanding the two objectively real dominions we must deal with in those spheres --that of sin and of grace -- is, in Jason's words, that "everything is connected."
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Today David explains why he said last week that the use to which evangelicals have put the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause “diminishes the glory of Christ respecting what Christ accomplished on the Cross.” Find out how evangelicals failed to deliver what the Founding Father's expected from Christians to make "permanent" the "free government" they established, and what Christians can do going forward.
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Special Edition: Last Friday, I said I thought the use by evangelicals of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Free Exercise Clause emphasis on “religious acts” to mean protection for certain for civil conduct “diminishes the glory of Christ respecting what Christ accomplished on the Cross.” The following quotations from one of the leading Puritans on the dominion of sin and Christian liberty will be helpful preparation for this Friday's explanation of what I previously said.
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What is the relationship between the protestant understanding of the doctrine of original sin and the purpose of First Amendment’s Free Exercise of Religion Clause? The U.S. Supreme Court's failure to consider that doctrine has made its interpretation of that clause wrong. But I believe its interpretation and evangelical reliance on it for protecting civil conduct demeans the gospel. It was for good reason that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story warned "the future experience of Christendom" would be determined by the duties assigned to our nation's churches by the Free Exercise Clause.
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I offer the following brief explanation of Romans 7:20-21 by John Owen from 1667 that I hope provides a better understanding of the effect we can expect the “dominion of sin” to have on our political endeavors and will lead to a better understanding of tomorrow’s important episode about the true purpose of First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause.
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Why are large numbers of people in Minneapolis, many educated, choosing to do things that to many of us just don’t make sense? Is Christ, the prophet to His Church, revealing something to His people? If so, what is it? Is the answer something more than "Sinners sin"? I think so. It may be controversial, but I think it affects the "strategy" we need going forward?
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In this 4 minute special edition, find out why Richard Dawkins, the atheistic evolutionary biologist, and a strict Calvinist, J. Gresham Mechen, agree on one thing: Certain Christians have abandoned Christianity. It shows up in how we approach the transgender issue in law and public policy.
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Today I discuss how a heresy I unwittingly embraced affected what I thought my 30 year engagement in law and politics could accomplish. Do you think my description of that heresy and its application is dominate among evangelicals and Roman Catholics? I do, and explain why.
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Our society and law have progressed from prohibiting access to contraceptives in 1879 to a Supreme Court argument this week about human sexuality to U.S. Senator Josh Hawley asking a Doctor if a man can get pregnant. Why has this "evolution" occurred and gone in only one direction? And why don't we ask "Why" questions anymore? It's all of one piece. Something fundamental may be missing in our thinking. [My reference to Kansas should be Nebraska]
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Today I explain the dirty trick the U.S. Supreme Court played on the states to foist on them a new understanding of human meaning, a new anthropology. You will see how the Court degraded the high view of marriage expressed by a Massachusetts statute dating from 1879 to the constitutional protection of fornication in 7 years, from 1965 to 1972!
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This special episode is for those who want to dig a bit deeper into "understanding the times" that I explained earlier this week using SCOTUSs decision in Eisenstadt v. Baird. Two short audio clips of TN Senator Marsha Blackburn's interrogation of then judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson and my explanation of them demonstrate the cosmological merry-go-round of metaphysical nihilism we are on. Understand the cosmology she is writing into our law.
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Today, I explain how the United States Supreme Court came to understand the word “liberty” in the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause and the changes in society's understanding of the cosmos that influenced it. Understanding the evolution of that word is critical to everyone who wants to understand our times and know better how to “walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time” (Colossians 4:5 KJV). "Sons of Issachar" should not miss this one.
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Today, I pass on my answer to a great question asked by a Christian state legislator who listened to last week’s podcast about working to restore God’s “ordered liberty”: If we are to do that, how should we have argued for the bill not allowing men to compete in women’s sports? Equally important is what can we learn about ourselves by thinking through the two different approaches?
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Today David explains how the thoughts of Puritan John Owen in his monumental work, Christologia, completely re-ordered his thinking about law and legal and public policy advocacy in recent years, and how those thoughts relate to the God’s creational intention for every Christian in the present. Creation, the image of God, the Fall, and the “ordered liberty” of government that rests on the child in the manger all come together in one glorious scriptural truth about Christ’s mediation in this final advent edition.
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The Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah to record a prophesy that "the government shall be upon his shoulder"--a baby in a manger. Today, David examines what no one ought to overlook: Even SCOTUS knows that God prepared the Western world for His Son's Kingdom. But the Spirit also said the scope of his governance and its peace would increase. What are Christians and non-Christian to think of that part of the prophesy today? On that front, I say the news is still good
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The apostle Paul wrote, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Today I examine how reason led to an understanding of law by 50 B.C. that was ready for the law to become incarnate. Its the story we need to hear in our day, especially Christian lawyers. It's amazing! And I explain why the story of the person of Jesus is more important than ever.
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Today we examine the test Isaiah provides us on whether our thoughts on winning are God's thoughts or conform to those of our age. And I will examine that test in light of a recent case argued before the United States Supreme Court by Christian lawyers and my wrong application of that test and compare them both to how Isaiah might have us apply that test to our legal and political arguments.
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Part 2 of my 3 part Thanksgiving gift to you on "winning" in a society rife with exhausting rivalries. Today we look at what John Owen meant when he spoke of "loving the person of Christ"--what I submit is the key to how we think about winning and how we go about winning.
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Today's episode is Part 1 of my Thanksgiving gift to you. It responds to the fact that our society runs on rivalry. One person wins means the others lose; one group wins means the other groups lose. It's exhausting. I pray this gift will help you go back into your part of the world after the Thanksgiving weekend with joy and peace (Isaiah 55:12 ). And I pray it will jump start an Advent season filled with more of the same. Part 2 will come out Wednesday morning. Stay tuned.
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Today we consider Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson's answer. to "what is a woman" at her U.S. Senate Confirmation hearing 3 years ago. . Her answer was ridiculed, but she said something important about law. Her answer will help us understand why lawyers no longer believe in law. And we will consider how she might have answered the question, “What is law?”
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Today's episode expands on last week’s episode by explaining why I think Jesus might "double down" on his "woe" for today's Christian lawyers. The reason: lawyers are taught not to believe in law and that can hinder others in coming to know Christ. That was true of my experience as lawyer, legislator, and lobbyist. Blackstone, Kuyper, Holmes, and Einstein help prove my thesis.
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SPECIAL REPORT: Don't be discouraged now by those who may have led you to believe the Kim Davis case out of Kentucky might be the one that SCOTUS would use to overturn its 2015 "gay marriage" decision, Obergefell v. Hodges. Don't let anyone "cover up" what I said was wrong with the case from the get go. And listen to the steps we can take now to get a good "Obergefell case" up to SCOTUS.
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Jesus had a pretty damning word in his day for some of the practicing lawyers among His people. Today, I explain why I think they apply to many Christians practicing law today and why the people of God need to know what they are doing. Why? Because Jesus said his people were being "hindered" by the lawyers of his day.
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In the recent contention over Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes and comments about the nation of Israel, that Tony Perkins and others in the sphere of public policy have now commented on, have you seen anyone address the application of the prophecy in Isaiah 49:1-3, particularly v. 3, “And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, O Israel, In whom I will be glorified’”? I haven’t, so I will offer one that goes beyond mere semantical wrangling over a word.
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A Senior Fellow for Biblical Worldview for a national Christian ministry recently commented on needing a certain win in the U.S. Supreme Court and on how to win. The question we examine today is whether his thoughts on the subject are his own or those informed by God's word. The answer depends on something I once never considered: Our knowledge of and love for the person of Christ.
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Today we examine the belief of a “Senior Fellow for Biblical Worldview” for a national organization about the importance of winning as a guiding principle. We examine this belief in light of the argument Christian lawyers recently made in favor of the unconstitutionality of state laws prohibiting "conversion therapy." We will also compare his belief that "the left" is being "ridiculous" against my belief that Christians are denying what they believe is true.
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Last week we examined the questions a Senior Fellow for Biblical Worldview suggested for discerning “Who is a Christian?” and “Who is on our team?” Today we take that examination a step further. Is it possible that getting the “right answers” to worldview questions has obscured the good news of Christ, the actual gospel? Is it possible that the gospel is better news than we’ve imagined? David says the answer to both is “Yes!”
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Today we will examine two questions suggested by a Senior Fellow for Biblical Worldview at a national political and policy organization to determine, according to him, "Who is actually a Christian" and "Who is on our team." Abraham Kuyper provided a critique to the two suggested questions, but the Apostle Paul provided the one question we really need to ask. Today's episode may explain why policy discussions rarely include Christ.
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Today, David looks at a recent statement by a Christian pro-family policy organization on military fitness standards to see what arguments complementarian thinking about men and women leaves Christians with when it comes to women in combat. Complementarian thinking is the "in" word for political conservatives when addressing the male-female "divide," but is that a Christ-denying capitulation? David explains how he would now approach these issues.
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Today, David resumes his consideration of whether philosophical reasoning can be the way to get back to a Christian view of law. Its limits, he explains, are demonstrated when the question is whether women should fight in combat roles. David explains why the prevalence of complementarian thinking in Christian circles can’t answer this question and offers an answer he believes Scripture provides.
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Special Edition: WHY is "free speech" so important, beyond just saying it is or “it’s in the Constitution"“ And WHY did Jesus say (Matt. 12:37) "For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." Here's my 4 minute stab at answering these "why" questions.
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I started not to post today, because I needed “time off” to process the assassination of Charlie Kirk before continuing on the topic I proposed at the conclusion of last week’s episode: Is reason the way forward in law. But what came to mind this morning is too important in view of all the talk in media about needing a new way forward. Today, I ask and answer why logical reasoning seems to bounce off so many whose thinking is not logical or consistent. My conclusion: What’s preached in our churches must change to what Paul preached.
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This is a four minute audio response to Senator Kaine’s comments about human rights that I pray honors God, and that Charlie Kirk would applaud. I actually recorded it earlier this week, but it seems appropriate today because the issue of rights will now swirl around Kirk’s work and assassination. It is what I would say if I were a United States senator having a platform to respond to the issue of rights. Query: Why do we think we have any rights?
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Increasingly, Christians offer a return to the philosophical reasoning of the ancients as the way forward in addressing public policies that put at issue what it means to be human. Getting back on the right road, as C.S. Lewis put it, toward the consideration of human meaning is necessary. But how does the eschatology of a Christian view of law apply to philosophical reasoning as the way forward?
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Law is inherently eschatological. Today I explain why that is so, the eschatology that now informs society and law and why, and the practical implications of that seemingly heady and "theological" topic in law.
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Today’s short episode is a “supplement” to this coming Friday’s episode on the eschatological implications of briefs filed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Ethics and Public Policy Center with SCOTUS on transgenderism. Would you encourage or discourage the legislator argument I offer in today’s episode about women in the military? Remember: Legislators don’t have to make legal arguments to explain their vote on legislation.
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Certain aspects of the Christian view of law found in Romans 7:14 were broached in two briefs filed with the United States Supreme Court! Today, David discusses those briefs along with what he appreciated and what he would have done differently. Along the way, he explains how Christology and Christian eschatology inform his analysis.
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Christians should give thanks for a “Christian” outcome in a judicial dispute over a particular parental right, but I believe that is not enough. I believe the end or telos of a Christian view of law would strive to restore in law parental rights as an authority delegated by God with a prescribed jurisdiction give for certain ends—”godly offspring” (Malachi 2:15). Today I explain the legislative proposal I offered Tennessee’s legislature that would moved law in that direction.
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Today, David explains why “parental rights” is now just a power game, and gives examples of Christian legal and policy advocates effectively conceding that the determinative power over what those rights are rests with a U.S. Supreme Court that has embraced a lawless, disintegrated cosmos. He also briefly summarizes what Christians must do to restore real and objectively determinable parental rights. It’s a must-listen episode for those with children and grandchildren.
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Today, David explains how Christianity succumbed to the cosmological revolution of Kant and Nietzsche, the specific adoption of that cosmology by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the secret to a launching a successful Christ-centered counter-revolution. But, he says, it won't begin so long as Christians lawyers and policy makers put their faith in being able to manipulate to their immediate advantage U.S.Supreme Court precedents over the last 100 years grounded in the new cosmology.
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Today’s episode provides a brief historical snapshot to show how the US. Supreme Court now thinks of "marriage" in relation to the law, how it used to think of that relation, and how Christ specifically informed that law less than 200 years ago. Seeing the transition from a Christian view of law will be shocking, as it once was to me. But the past provides a baseline for measuring a return to a Christian view of law.
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Today David looks at how today’s “climate of opinion” can cause Christians to be deceived into thinking Christian lawyers and legislators are employing a Christian view of law. It will also help us see that Christians unjustifiably thought progress toward a Christian worldview was being made when, on June 18th, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Tennessee’s law prohibiting medical interventions to treat a minor’s gender dysphoria.
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If a Christian view of law is spiritual and covenantal, what does that look like when arguing before the United States Supreme Court? Today, David looks at the approaches taken by two different Christian camps in United States v. Skrmetti that addressed the constitutionality of Tennessee’s law prohibiting medical treatments for a minor’s gender dysphoria. The two approaches represent two different cosmologies, not just different legal arguments!
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C.S. Lewis once wrote that it may seem he is “trying to answer questions you never asked." Some may think that about my recent discourses on God's covenant secret and in relation to law. But Lewis also said those answers often "do not make sense until a man has reached those places.” Today, I hope those discourses will make sense. That "secret" explains what kind of thinking about or engagement in law and politics is salutary and what is in vain.
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Today David talks about what he learned six months ago that is fundamental to the "secret" behind a Christian view of law. It helped him see why his worldview was more informed by Darwin and Nietzsche than Christ, and it further reformed his approach to legal and public policy advocacy.
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Did you know that a Christian view of law hinges on a secret that God only makes known to those who fear him? Psalm 25:14 says, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.” Today, David explains how a Christian cosmology of law is embedded in that verse. And he explains how coming to know that secret after decades in evangelical churches awakened him from the Nietzschean cosmology that had informed his view of politics and law for decades.
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The Apostle Paul writes that “the law is spiritual,” but what does that mean? Today, David answers that question. And the answer will explain why he said last week that the answer to “What is a Christian view of law?” depends on a person’s metaphysics. The answer Scripture provides is the only antidote to the metaphysical nihilism that infects so many Christians engaged in law and public policy advocacy, from professionals to preachers.
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According to Romans 7:14, the answer depends on one’s metaphysic. Today David explains why some Christians would find such an answer too philosophical and speculative sounding to be Christian, even perhaps even unbiblical. But Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper told us more than 100 years ago this would happen. Kuyper even saw the Calvinism he loved grinding to a metaphysical halt.
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Today’s episode is an “extra” for this week in anticipation of Friday’s podcast on “A Christian View of Law.” It is a sermon David preached on Psalm 25:14 in November 2023 to re-ignite the imagination of those who might have lost the wonder of the “secret” God reveals to “those who fear him.”
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What is a “Christian” view of law? David says the answer depends entirely on what the word “Christian” means. So, in this episode, he explains why he thinks the word has lost it original meaning,; pans an emerging alternative, “Jesus follower;” and sets the stage for next week’s topic: Are “Christians” using the law lawfully?
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Today, David looks at what esteemed jurist Joseph Story said about the First Amendment’s “Free Speech Clause”—debated this week in the U.S. Supreme Court—and a type of harm it did not protect. Today, even that harm makes no sense, and so it is allowed to proliferate. David explains what is missing in even doctrinally sound Christian thinking that prevents the scourge of pornography from being addressed properly in our law.
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Today’s episode is David’s report on a “autopsy” performed by a few of the remaining sons of Issachar in America on the “Death of Evangelicalism.” Its death was pronounced by a Final Judgment, aptly named, issued by the United States Supreme Court in 2015. If you want to appreciate why evangelicalism seems so fruitlessness in culture and law, you will want to listen to the report. Thankfully, he notes, the dead are raised to life again according to the Gospel.
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History shows that the purpose of the First Amendment's religion clauses was to continue the reformation between religious liberty and religious toleration that ended in England with the restoration of the monarchy and the Church of England's primacy. Recent arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court on religious liberty show that Christians in America have forgotten that purpose and providentially given mission. That failure has put Christians under the thumb of the godless. It is time that Church re-vive this stillborn reformation to reconcile religious liberty with righteous and just civil laws.
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This week the U.S. Supreme Court considered the application of the Free Exercise Clause to a public school "story time" curriculum that some Christians parents objected to. Perhaps Christians should consider why they want a clause expressly directed to Congress applied to the states.
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Easter is the perfect time for Christians to reflect on the providence of God in constituting our nation in such a way that a great gospel doctrine was placed in the Constitution's Free Exercise Clause. In the minds of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson it resolved a gospel debate that can be raced back to 16th century English theologian, William Perkins
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The full text of John Adams’s letter saying “our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people” has been forgotten. In the forgotten portion, he wrote “this Country will be the most miserable Habitation in the world” if certain specific things happened. What were they? Did they happen? If so, what should we do? In the mid-1800s, van Prinsterer gave an answer that would keep us from “whitewashing sepulchers.” Some will want to discuss this further at the conference announced in today’s podcast.
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Today David examines Tennessee’s attorney general's defense before the U.S. Supreme Court of the state’s law prohibiting medical treatments for a minor’s gender dysphoria. It’s important to understand because it’s the same argument Christian legal and policy advocates are using around the country. Are the arguments based on a nihilistic or biblical cosmology? Listen to find out.
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Today David takes quotes from the arguments made last week by the U.S. Department of Justice to the United States Supreme Court explaining why it thinks the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause is violated by Tennessee's law prohibiting the use of medicine to treat a minor's gender dysphoria. His analysis of them will show why Christians must take the prevailing nihilistic cosmology and its application to law seriously.
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Today, David looks at the Incarnation through the lens of excerpts from John Owen’s Christologia and Isaiah 61 to show its application to law and its relation to how Tennessee’s law prohibiting medical interventions to “treat” a minor’s gender dysphoria is being defended before the United States Supreme Court.
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When Christians lose the metaphysic and cosmology of Colossians 1:15-20, we fall prey to the “empty traditions and philosophies of men.” David uses John Owen’s exposition of Hebrews 11:1, legislative testimony from the most prominent pro-life lawyer in America, and what the founder of a Christian law school said he teaches his students to show how a wrong metaphysic and cosmology turns making the argument of law into counting votes on the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Two weeks ago, David argued there were Fifth Commandment problems with the legal arguments submitted by Christians to the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of Tennessee’s law prohibiting the use of medicine to address a minor’s gender dysphoria. Today David looks at the briefs submitted on behalf of four Christian organizations to explain why he thinks there are problems with the first three commandments, too.
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Having explored the ways in which the arguments of a leading Christian legal advocate conform to the way the godless think about the world we live in, David raises two objections that might be made against his analysis. He answers them with the help of William Blackstone and a conversation between his friends at Choc Knox Unplugged. Getting a free copy of David’s short monograph, Toward Christian Nihilism-A Short Study in Contrasting Policy Approaches, will make clearer what’s going on.
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Is it a “legal strategy” or a Fifth Commandment problem when Christian legal advocates eschew common law and its application to current legal issues involving human sexuality? David uses an amicus brief recently filed by a leading Christian legal advocacy organization with the U.S. Supreme Court and William Blackstone to answer that question and shows how its rights-based legal argument conforms to the way the ungodly think about rights.
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A question about natural law from a lawyer-lobbyist about Christians embracing natural law provides a foundation for today’s look at the arguments made by Christian legal advocates to SCOTUS in defense of Tennessee’s law prohibiting medical interventions to treat a minor’s gender dysphoria. David explains how their arguments unwittingly embrace a subjective-oriented, relativistic understanding of law, not a Christian one.
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This week friend of the court briefs were filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on a case out of Tennessee that is of civilization defining importance—whether bodies are essential to human meaning. David briefly explains the brief he submitted and compares it to one filed by the scholarly Ethics and Public Policy Council with its Judeo-Christian ethic. He explains why the latter’s brief seems to call for a return to good old bad days of the Enlightenment that undermined biblical Christianity and ushered in nihilism.
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Today David begins to look at a third group he now sees involved in politics, those he calls neo-Theonomists. The prophet Isaiah as well as the person who prepared the soil for Abraham Kuyper’s political engagement, Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, speak wisely to those who with a Benthamite view of the Bible run to the Capitol to press for enactment of certain laws of God.
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Today David offers a Biblical touchstone for improving on the church-state problems that contributed to our law no longer having a Christian foundation. Demonstrative of those problems are two historical situations that may explain why the Danbury Baptists may have sided with the Enlightenment-influenced, Gospel-averse Thomas Jefferson for President. There is “blame” enough for every stripe of Protestant to share in and now it’s time to move forward.
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Who, in David’s terminology, are the neo-Baptists that he finds involved in politics and law? Is their engagement “better” than that of neo-Covenanters? Today, David discusses the distinction between Baptistic theology and that of the “old” Covenantors and how that theology worked itself in history. He explains how that led the Danbury Baptist Association to support Thomas Jefferson for President. Did the “old” Baptists help Jefferson lay the foundation for a “wall of separation” that the neo-Baptists of today decry?
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David takes today’s episode to develop a historical context for next week’s discussion of neo-Baptist engagement with law and politics. Without this context, the Gnostic nature of that form of engagement will be less clear. David uses the work of 18th-century Scottish theologian, Thomas Boston, and the Apostle Paul's first letter to Timothy to explain the role of law in non-Gnostic terms.
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Are you part of the neo-Covenantal tradition or the neo-Baptist tradition when it comes to law and politics? Today, David defines these two groups based on 30 years of dealing with Christians in the legal and policy spheres. In this episode, though, he explains why the neo-Covenanters are Gnostics and would have Calvin and Kuyper rolling in their graves.
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David begins his examination of what he considers the two predominate views among Christians on law and politics, those he calls the neo-Covenanters and neo-Baptists, with how he realized he read the Bible like the legal positivist, Jeremy Bentham, and why reading the Bible that way is gnostic, not Christian. Is being a heretic easier than ever before? The answer may surprise you.
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Common law authority William Blackstone said that man “must in all points conform to the will of his nature,” and this will was called the “natural law.” Today, David explains how he overlooked the most fundamental law of human nature because he read the Bible like a disciple of legal positivist Jeremy Bentham. From his experience, David offers a proposition about the state of evangelicalism in America.
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Evangelicals of all stripes want to live in a country that has righteous laws or, we might say, law in accord with God’s law. And to that end the debate rages among those voting for Trump because they are evangelicals and those not voting for Harris because they are evangelical. The recent comments of David French and the formation of “Evangelicals for Harris” and the evangelical rejoinder to them quickly come to mind. Today, David launches a short series that talks about the evangel of righteousness that seems to have been lost in the din of politics.
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This week David shares four statements by Jonathan Burnside, Professor of Biblical Law at the University of Bristol (England) Law School, about how the Bible presents “Biblical law” that came flooding back to his mind when, last week, he read a conversation God said Jeremiah would have with those of God’s people who did not like his prophecies. Would we, like them, say, “How have we forgotten your law?”
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At a recent gathering of political and legal advocates from around the nation, most of whom were Christians, these questions were asked: “What keeps you up at night?” and “What is most urgent to you?” David uses an excerpt from C.S. Lewis’s The Weight of Glory, an excerpt from John Owen’s Christologia, and Hebrews Chapter 4, to provide insight into what the questions and the way they were framed says about our understanding of the Gospel.
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This week’s episode will spring from the relationship between Dionysius’s table depicted at the Olympics and common Christian wisdom about political engagement. David will apply thoughts drawn from observations made by Abraham Kuyper, John Owen, Jeff Shafer, Jason Farley, and the prophet Jeremiah to offer what he thinks should be the first step in a truly Christian response to the Republican Party’s Platform and future political engagement.
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After the events of the last 10 days, some Christian policy organizations are circling back to how Christians should respond to the new Republican Party Platform. Today, David uses Isaiah and John Owen to probe whether observations made by one prominent national organization go deeply enough in explaining how 45 years of work were, in its words, “wiped out in hours.”
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Changes in the Republican Party’s platform’s planks regarding abortion and marriage riled Christian political advocates who actively sought a minority report with different language. But did they read the Preamble? Today, David explains why he thinks its provisions represent the best of humanistic hubris and explain why abortion and marriage were left to walk the proverbial plank.
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In his discussion of the ruler’s function, Peter tells persecuted Christians to “do good.” Is that limited to doing good deeds, or can his exhortation apply to how one does politics and drafts legislation? David says it includes the latter and gives real life examples from the last few years to demonstrate what the “good” is and isn’t in relation to a Biblical anthropology.
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As noted last week, the metaphysics of law and sin are first seen in the opening chapters of Genesis and more clearly revealed in Romans. But what are we to make of the exhortations by both Paul and Peter to overcome evil rulers by doing good? Are these exhortations the eternal word of God or mere artifacts of a different time in history? In other words, now we need organized political effort that give us the power to enact better laws.
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The Apostle Peter gives us description of rulers that helps us evaluate those who hold office in all three branches of our civil government. The result isn’t pretty. But his recommendation for how to respond to “ignorant fools” in public office seems wrong and is at odds with what we think and do today. But if God’s word is true and eternal, does that mean we’re missing something? Is it in our understanding of how the Bible speaks of law and sin?
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Dr. Al Mohler said this week that there will be “two rival understandings of reality facing off” in the November elections. Is that true? David asks and answers several questions about the nature of law that probe the accuracy of Mohler’s assessment. More importantly, is there evidence that evangelical Christianity doesn’t even present a rival understanding of reality to that held by the Democratic and Republican parties.
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The conviction of former President Donald Trump generated lots of comments about the rule of law. Some said it was the end of the rule of law and others said it demonstrative of the rule of law. What if neither observation is correct? David uses the thoughts of Lord Heny deBracton, the father of the common law, to examine rule of law and in what sense, if any, it exists today.
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David recounts a recent conversation with a member of Congress on pending legislation that demonstrates what happens when Christians are not discipled well in the faith and in the law respecting their office. No “Christian America” will come from such leaders. But it will come if Christians understand what Ezekiel 36 teaches about how God brings a once-Christian nation not just from captivity but to restoration and advancement.
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Theonomy is predicated on the Triune God but it pertains to a certain cosmology. So, how are Christians to think of theonomy and its application in relation to a legal system the structure and content of which are now divorced from both its history and the cosmology that gave rise to it? David tackles that subject with a new two-part thesis for “applied theonomy.”
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Christians who have been unengaged in politics are now beginning to engage. So, why would the host of one of David’s favorite podcasts suggest many of them are “mucking up everything?” David provides an answer by explaining a key issue period in Medieval Christendom discussed in that podcast and by tying it to a key U.S. Supreme Court decision, and to observations about law by Hale Institute director Jeff Shafer.
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A recent interview of an evangelical pastor disappointed by his friend, Virginia Governor Youngkin, signing a same-sex “marriage” bill into law reveals how Christian discipleship falls short, not just with those wanting to hold office, but often with the pastors and policy organizations supporting them. David explains why what may sound and look good to many people in the pews too often turns out so disappointing.
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The floundering of the pro-life movement since Roe v. Wade was reversed provides the context for David asking in today’s episode, “What makes for a Christian community, state, or nation, and where in that process do righteous civil laws come into play?” In answer, David offers for consideration a thesis drawn from a re-examination of the Great Commission in Matthew 28.
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Today, David talks about how discipling a nation (Matthew 28:19) might look different from what is being done today in law and public policy. He uses a statement made on the Tennessee House floor this week by an influential Christian Republican to show what he thinks is missing. He also offers part of a speech he recently gave to a group of Christian lawyers and policy leaders as a way forward.
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God promised “nations” would come from Abraham and Jesus told his disciples to disciple the nations. With that in mind, David uses scripture and some observations from Choc Knox and Jason Farley (Knox Unplugged) to explain how this kind of “nation building” is influencing the focus of his work in law and politics.
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Many Christians, including preachers, politicians, and policy organizations, seem bent on “saving” America from further ruin by various means. Is that really the purpose for which the mystery of God was revealed in the person of Christ? Does the covenant with Abraham, illuminated by the new covenant in Christ, suggest a national purpose relative to law and civil government that Christians have not considered? And what kind of politicians and policy makers (and preachers) would we need, given our present ones seem to have failed us. Join David as he works through these questions.
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Eric Metaxas’s new book, Letter to the American Church, Biden’s use of the image of God in proclaiming Transgender Awareness Day, and 29 years of direct legal and policy advocacy have brought home to me with increasing urgency observations made about Christianity and society by Abraham Kuyper in the 1890’s. Is Christianity and the work and activism of most Christians in law, civil government, and public policy Christ-less? How does it matter? John Owen’s Christologia provides a needed answer.
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In a speech given in 1891 to open the First Christian Social Congress, Abraham Kuyper nailed the problem Europe was experiencing and that America is now experiencing. His precise definition of the problem and concise explanation of it will help us evaluate whether the “practical politics” practiced by evangelical legal and policy organizations is exposes the absence of something vital to Christianity and culture.
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A Christian legal organization recently trumpeted a “victory for religious liberty,” but whether it was a victory depends on one’s theology. Today David uses Colossians 2 and Robert Haldane’s commentary on Romans 2:1 to show what many Christian legal and policy organizations think “victory” means, why that is their sole objective, and what a different theology might have them doing.
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With its 9 to zero decision on Monday reversing Colorado’s removal of Donald Trump from the ballot, the United States Supreme Court schooled some Christian legal and policy organizations on how the Fourteenth Amendment works. And in doing so it exposed the “Hagar method” of legal advocacy they are employing to “protect” parental rights. Don’t be seduced by the promise this method holds out because God seems slack in His promises.
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When the United States Supreme Court held in 2015 that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited states from issuing marriage licenses to only male and female applicants, it didn’t expand the definition of marriage, but abolished it. Today David explains why this was a civilization defining decision, how gay rights lawyers are using it to redefine the parent-child relationship, and how certain Christian legal and policy organizations seem not to understand what happened to our nation.
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This week Justice Alito released an opinion in a case in which Christians were presumed to be unfit to sit as jurors in a case involving a lesbian. David uses remarks from the Hale Institute’s Jeff Shafer and from Rosaria Butterfield to explain why Christian legal and policy leaders and pastors should have known such a result was coming. In doing so you will also learn how Christian organizations are working to “queer” parental rights in the states.
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Do you think of the world as an allegory? If not, why not? Today David takes a look at those questions using exchanges between Choc Knox and Jason Farley and then explains how the “world as allegory” could better inform our understanding of the dominion mandate in relation to law and its development.
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The United States Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence got better with the reversal of Roe v. Wade last summer. So, why, if the “law” got better at the constitutional level is the law in the states getting worse than under Roe’s abortion regime? David tackles that question using observations by Choc Knox, Jason Farley, and George Grant. The answer may surprise you.
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Today David uses the Satanic Temple’s description of its after school Satan Clubs, Karl Marx’s critique of religion, and an exchange between Jason Farley and George Grant to look at the fundamental change that took place in our “creation cosmology” and how that relates to the dominion mandate.
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The proposed federal “Parental Rights and Responsibilities Act, and similar legislation in the states, may look like it is in furtherance of the dominion mandate, because parents have God-given rights and a God-given jurisdiction in relation to their children. Today David explains why there could be nothing further from the truth than that assumption.
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In recent years, the “dominion mandate” in Genesis 1 has come alive for many Christians. Today David begins a three-week series that looks at various considerations for its fulfillment. This week, he looks at its application in the context of abortion legislation, and the divisions it has exposed among Christians. Has this situation exposed something that must precede taming the wilderness?
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Today David explains why, if he were still a state Senator, he would evaluate forthcoming legislation in several states that would subject pregnant women to a criminal sanction through the prism of Matthew 6:33 and how he would do it. Then he will give the remarks he would provide in a legislative hearing. Finally, he closes with a challenge to Christians on both sides of the issue.
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Recent videos by EndAbortionNow have focused on two approaches often taken by mainline pro-life organizations to justify their approach to abortion legislation. David looks at those approaches, as well as his own in times past, to see if they align with the gospel. He points to aspects of the gospel that would have Christians re-calibrate their perspective on this and any number of other political and electoral issues.
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A new video by EndAbortionNow.com asserts that women who make an abortion decision should be subject to criminal penalties. Some in the video contend that not doing so denies to her the gospel. Today, David uses Sinclair Ferguson’s The Whole Christ and Robert Haldane’s Exposition of Romans to consider whether such thinking reveals a problem with our understanding of the gospel.
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Last week another video was released by EndAbortionNow.com “revealing the main issue” that “is keeping abortion alive in this nation.” Surprised by what it was, David puts in under the microscope of the good news that is the Christmas story, asking if the new law the movement proposes can be the death knell to abortion in our nation?
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Fundamental theological truths about God are generally considered unimportant to Christian political engagement. David explains why that is the problem. This episode will help you evaluate whether the politicians and policy and legal organizations you support can make a difference.
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A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1938 rejected the Christian understanding of the world and, therefore, it changed our understanding of law. David will explain the decision and give examples from his lobbying work to demonstrate how it helped change Christianity. It gave rise to what he calls “nominal Christianity.”
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Last week pastor Jeff Durbin of Arizona released a video that “revealed” new U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s opposition to a bill two years ago in Louisiana that would have treated the unborn as persons entitled to equal protection of the laws. Today David wades into the controversy to examine what kind of cosmological thinking may lie behind it with the hope that God might use the situation to edify and build up in love the Body of Christ.
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David takes the issue of abortion pending before the Supreme Court in Iowa and contrasts the way in which the pro-life cause was argued by the state’s attorney general to the way he presented the argument in a brief he wrote filed on behalf of pro-family organizations in 32 states. You’ll see the difference between just trying to win and trying to win in a way that restores the cosmology that produces a right to life.
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In today’s episode, David uses a lawsuit pending in the Iowa Supreme Court testing its judicially created state “constitutional” right to abortion to show what the breaking of that de facto covenant by the judicial branch looks like. The Court’s high sounding but meaningless words hide what amounts to a road to tyranny our founding fathers would have recognized and resisted.
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David responds to a listener’s question about how to restore in our law the Biblical cosmology on which the Western Legal Tradition was grounded, and how such an effort would inform and shape “Christian nationalism.”
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Today, David offers his thoughts and analysis on comments and questions he received by email from an astute listener. This episode will provide a great overview of recent topics leading to a challenging observation by Jeff Shafer, director of the Hale Institute, about the way the cosmos was once conceived by lawyers vis-à-vis the cosmos the U.S. Supreme Court has foisted on us all.
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Today, David brings together past episodes on the “law of faith” and the eternal covenant to evaluate the justification for laws protecting minors from “gender transition procedures” that was given in a national op-ed written by a Christian state legislator. He will look at how to evaluate the legislator’s labor—was it “in the Lord” or “in vain”?
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The outbreak of war in the Middle East provides the perfect context for today's episode as David provides the scriptural support for why the biblical covenants need to fit into our cosmology and, therefore, into our engagement with law and public policy. The material David covers today challenged the way he had been taught over the years to think about conflict in the Middle East.
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David uses A.W. Pink, noted 20th century theologian, to look at whether we can know what we should be doing—in our lives and our politics—if we do not understand the various covenants in the Bible. As Pink notes, the temporal covenants reveal to us “the divine side” of what God planned to do with his creation, from beginning to the end, even before He created.
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Today David notes a pervasive aspect of social order and law that seems to be wholly missing from the Christian worldview or, more broadly, Christian cosmology. He uses Herman Bavinck, A.W. Pink, William Blackstone, the U.S. Constitution, and a familiar 1992 SCOTUS decision to demonstrate his point. Faithful politics must begin to deal with this forgotten cosmological reality.
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Today, David reports on a meeting in Washington, DC featuring remarks by four Christian conservative members of Congress and one former member. God, Jesus, faith, and Bible verses were referenced easily during the evening, with one prominent leader saying he would continue to “contend for the faith.” But was he doing that? Find out why David ended the evening saying, “I just can’t do this kind of thing anymore.”
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If Christians are to live “by the law of faith” what does that look like as a practical matter? Today, David uses two real-life examples to demonstrate the difference and then gives his thoughts, drawn from his own failure and from Luke 18, on the principle from which faith-filled politics should spring.
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Because the sons of Issachar had an “understanding of the times,” they knew what Israel should do. But do the people who lead us in politics and in law, even the Christians, really understand the times, what historian Carl Becker called the “climate of opinion” that determines whether any argument—for law or otherwise—can even make sense? Today David uses Becker and the Scriptures to help us understand the times and whether our leaders understand them.
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Today David explains why he ended last week’s program saying he was “giving up” on a Biblical worldview if it was not set in the context of a Cosmological worldview. He speaks to what the former led to in his political thinking and lays the foundation for putting a Biblical worldview inside a Cosmological worldview for the sake of reshaping the way Christians engage in politics and law.
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Despite the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, and subsequent Christian policy and political organizations, Christian virtue in our society has waned. Some think that is a sign of the end times. David examines what this says about our knowledge of God and creation and offers a reason for hope found in the strangest of places.
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Every year thousands of pieces of proposed legislation are filed by state legislators across the country, and hundreds become enacted law. Ever thought about what we expect those laws to do based on what the Bible says law does and how God uses law? David offers valuable insight on why the “good” laws we get enacted seem to do so little good.
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David uses a quote from William Blackstone’s famous Commentaries about common law that explains the two foundations for human law and how they were applied to various kinds of social issues. He uses it to test the legal arguments being made in court by leading pro-family advocates in defense of laws involving children and medical procedures affecting their reproductive systems. The contrast may shock you.
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Having eliminated all the alternatives for grounding an ethical legal system to that grounded in a “transcendent and immanent” God, law professor Arthur Leff turns us to the U.S. Constitution as a possible substitute. Both David and Leff find trust in an authoritative Constitution misplaced and unworkable. The evidence is found even in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision reversing Roe v. Wade.
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Ever wonder why some policy positions or legal arguments are not simply a matter of logic or reason or common senses. For you they are plain as day. For instance, how could any educated person think a biological boy can become a girl? David will explain what changed over the centuries that led educated people to throw out reasoning based on “the facts” as basis for law and public policy.
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Today, David disposes of a couple of popular theories for establishing an authoritative ground for law once the God of the Bible is banished. He uses an exchange between Justice Clarence Thomas and the attorney for the United States in last year’s oral arguments on abortion to demonstrate how those systems cannot produce a consistent and coherent system of law. No wonder God sits in the heavens and laughs (Psalm 2:4).
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This week, David begins to examine the alternatives to a Christian based legal system that mankind has come up with and how the late Yale law professor Arthur Leff, an atheist, debunks them as non-authoritative and unworkable. Leff provides great insight into what he calls a search for the “metaphorical equivalent” to the God of the Bible.
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Today David begins to take listeners through the question Yale law professor asked in 1971—on what basis can we have an authoritative legal system that can answer the equivalent of “sez who?” question of the playground bully. You will be surprised by Leff’s answer. Law professor Philip Johnson called it “the modernist impasse.” It is a guide to understanding what is going on in American law and the trouble law faces.
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We think we know what law is, but perhaps not. Law has always been rooted in an understanding of the nature of the cosmos, what it is for, and how it works, i.e., cosmology. Two cosmologies are and always have been at war with one another, and, in today’s podcast, David will use the preface to Berman’s Law and Revolution to explain the challenge we have in thinking of law cosmologically.
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At the Choc Knox Live event we hosted in Franklin last month, panelist Dr. George Grant said, “If you want to change a culture, you have to change the calendar.” On today’s episode, panelists Jason Farley and George Grant will explain why that is so, and what changed that has turned Christmas into a holiday season and June into Pride Month?
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Few today know of the contest between Thomas Jefferson and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story over the conception of law that would guide the newly formed United States.
The legacy of Story’s victory—the triumph of common law over positivist law—is available to us today if we will employ it against the legal positivists of our day.
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When you talk about common law, you are likely to run into two kinds of opposition—the uninformed who you can help, and those who hate the thought we don’t get to make up the law. It’s not anything new to our country. David will help you answer the critics and use a SCOTUS decision to help you spot those critics who have a self-interested political agenda.
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Today David uses apparently contradictory verses in Proverbs to demonstrate how easy it is to read the Bible according to the legal positivism of Jeremy Bentham. Then he applies the wisdom hidden in that apparent contradiction to how we should argue in federal court in support of the constitutionality of state laws prohibiting the application of transgender procedures to minors. Today’s episode may tell you if you’re really a legal positivist.
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Today David explains how America transitioned from the biblical conception of law espoused by Bracton and Blackstone from the 13th through the 18th centuries to Jeremy Bentham’s positivistic, utilitarian conception of law embraced by Oliver Wendell Holmes who changed the conception of law held today by most Christian lawyers. The applicability in our day of quotes from Holmes over a century ago will be eye-opening. To paraphrase Dorothy’s comment to Toto, you don’t live in a Christian cosmos anymore.
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Today David uses the remarks of Dr. Jonathan Burnside, Professor of Biblical Law at a law school (believe it or not) but in the United Kingdom to demonstrate how the Christian’s conception of law may be more shaped by Jeremy Bentham than the way the Bible presents law to us. It explains why common law makes little sense to people today.
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Having previously explained what law is and that common law is real law, David takes audio clips from remarks made by a Representative in Tennessee who is a lawyer to demonstrate what you should not believe and yet so many, including Christian lawyers, believe. If you want insight into what is wrong in our legal and political system, this episode is for you.
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Everybody has a conception of law. So, what is the Christian’s conception of law today? Does it align with a biblical conception of law? What might be a sign that we do or don’t have a biblical conception of law? To answer these questions over the next few weeks, David begins with a short primer on what common law is and the modern conception of it invented by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
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Do Christians abandon a biblical cosmology and conception of law to form alliances with those who reject those things for the sake of enacting legislation? Yes. But why would they do that? The answer explains the recent actions of the “Tennessee Three” and this week’s disruption of the Montana’s legislature by transgender activists.
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Today David considers why he and others have thought that it was necessary for the enactment of good laws and public polices to develop alliances with influential persons and organizations who essentially mock God by treating Him as irrelevant. You may find surprising the fundamental reason his thinking in that regard changed.
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Conversations and controversies about transgenderism and the two biological sexes heat up by the week. But what is the connection between the image of God and the two biological sexes? Animals have two sexes and God is pure spirit, non-corporeal. So, what is the essential about being made in the image of God, and is it being overlooked?
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Following the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, the conversation about transgenderism seemed to turn up another notch. A particular news story caught my eye that made we wonder if evangelicals are prepared to engage in the conversation in a meaningful way that goes beyond mere behavior or biology.
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“There is nothing new under the sun,” and, indeed, that is true of transgenderism. It answers three great philosophical questions raised by the ancient Greeks. Today David explains the questions and how they are answered by transgenderism, on the one hand, and, on the other, the triune God of creation.
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Today, David examines the testimony given to the Tennessee House of Representatives in support of transgenderism by the ACLU's Deputy Director of transgender justice and a woman attired as a Christian cleric. Find out what their testimony says about the nature of human beings and God.
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Transgenderism says men can have babies and feminine products should go in men’s restrooms. There are only two reasons that stand in the way of such thinking. Today David covers the second, and it is a reason only available to Christians.
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David introduces a short new series with transgender affirming testimony offered to the Tennessee legislature by an ACLU attorney and a minister who is a “follower of Jesus.” In the mini-series David will explain two doctrinal deficiencies within evangelicalism over the last 200 years that have made their testimony perfectly logical to so many. Only as these two doctrinal deficiencies are addressed will our nation’s present course change.
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In today’s episode, David takes J. Gresham Machen’s explanation of justification by faith in his monograph, “What is Faith?” and, using audio clips from the Tennessee House floor, compares what Machen wrote to the way the state’s transgender legislation was defended. Justification by faith provides a conception of law that raises an important question, “Are Christians unwittingly undermining the gospel in the way we speak to this type of legislation?"
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Today David draws on Abraham Kuyper to explain an “ah ha” moment he had last week regarding previous episodes discussing legislation in multiple states seeking to end “transgender care” for minors. It was the moment in which Kuyper’s distinction between religion for the sake of God vis-à-vis the sake of man came into focus and became practical and real.
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Today David reflects on recent conversations with Christian policy makers regarding transgender legislation and on the growing emphasis by Christians on restoring “civil liberty” in light of what Hosea, Isaiah, and Augustine have to say. What might they tell us about the way Christians now “do” politics and their motivations for engagement, and what might that mean in the years to come?
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In A Christian Manifesto, Francis Schaeffer connected Rousseau’s worldview to ours by the term “sociological law.” Today, David explains how that connection works and why it has become the basis for an increasing number of government officials (and others) to think that law is to “promote dignity.” Promoting dignity is at the heart of the battle over transgender legislation.
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Legislation in multiple states will take on the issue of gender affirming care. Christians will support it and not realize that the reasons given for it deny the existence of any real law. This means real parental rights can no longer be based on real law. That leaves cancel culture in driver’s seat to cancel the parental rights and civil liberties that Christian so greatly prize. Welcome to world Rousseau’s civil religion created when the evangelical gospel went Gnostic!
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Rousseau’s Christianity of a spiritualized kingdom of God birthed not just the kind of civil religion the state needs to keep order but cancel culture. The long connection between a gospel proclaiming a “spiritual” Kingdom of God and the rise of cancel culture is clear.
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The root of Christian Nationalism lies in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s interpretation of Jesus’ mission in coming into a pagan world. It reads like what many evangelicals preach and believe. His reinterpretation of the Gospel paved the way for a purely secular state. It allowed religion to exist for the sake of the state, not God.
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Christian nationalism arises out of justification for civil government and civil liberty grounded in bad theology. David uses Scripture and Abraham Kuyper to explain how a current Christian publication on this subject rests more on Rousseau’s contract theory of just government than on what the Bible says about God.
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David begins a new series looking at the intersection of Christianity and the love of one’s country (nation). In this introduction to the series, David posits that ‘Christian nationalism’ and cancel culture are two sides of the same coin—the non-Christian contract theory of civil government espoused by Jean Jacque Rousseau in “The Social Contract” (1762). Beginning today you will begin to learn how Rousseau replaced Christianity in both church and culture and the disastrous fruit is has produced in our nation.
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David ends the year with a little help from Alister Begg, Choc Knox Unplugged, and Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance. With their aid, David explains how subjective theology neuters the gospel and brings about a “Christian politic” that smacks more of polytheism than Christianity.
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Christianity is no longer relevant to civil law and government. Many Christians want it to be or become relevant again. Today David uses Abraham Kuyper to explain why Christianity has made itself irrelevant. Without that understanding, we will have no clue why it will remain irrelevant despite all our Christian political action.
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In today’s episode David will explain why leading evangelicals, in the name of protecting religion, presumably Christianity, are instead destroying it. The distinction between objective and subjective Christianity was on full display in the letter submitted two United States Senators by Presbyterian minister, Dr. Kim Park, president of the National Association of Evangelicals regarding the Respect for Marriage Act.
See: “NAE’s letter on RFMA”
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What is a theocentric worldview? What is a theocentric view of law and civil government? Today David will explain what it is, what happened last week that exposed some of his non-Theocentric thinking, and what effect theocentric thinking should have on the way we look at politics.
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Today David explains how Psalm 37:1-5 applies when things are going wrong all around us. It provides the necessary perspective for those who see the need to restore what few people even know they have lost, the Western Legal Tradition.
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The Apostle Paul says Christians are not to “have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,” but are to “expose them.” Yet, when it comes to legislation being filed around the country opposing “gender affirming care” for minors, many Christians are being tempted to join those whose worldview is darkness and, therefore, ultimately unfruitful. David exposes the “dark” worldview to which many are falling prey by using observations by J. Gresham Machen taken from Christianity and Liberalism.
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Last week we learned how common law is rooted in a Biblical cosmology. Today David uses excerpts from interviews with Jeff Shafer and legislation being filed around the country pertaining to transgenderism to explain why science not only can be of no real help on this legal issue, but how its current use is undermining law and parental rights in particular.
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In June, the United States Supreme Court decided a 2nd Amendment controversy and reversed Roe v. Wade citing William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England as authority. After you listen, you will be astounded to learn how much the cosmology of Genesis Chapters 1 through 3 informed Blackstone’s description of the nature of law. You will know what even most Christian lawyers don’t know about law.
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When faced with a difficult task—like restoring the Western Legal Tradition—convictions based on truth are essential. But what will inspire the courage necessary to the task: truth alone or truth that is beautiful. If the latter, what can be said that makes law beautiful to anyone?
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If the Western Legal Tradition is to be re-built, then it is good to know what the “other side” sounds like, what arguments they make. Today, David takes audio clips of arguments made by a Republican state legislator who is a lawyer and professing Christian to expose humanistic legal thinking. His arguments swayed other Republicans into not supporting legislation that allowed a man and woman to marry without having to first get permission from the government.
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Few today would know the difference between common and positive law legal systems, positive laws and negative laws. Even fewer would think the difference matters—law is law. Today David uses part of conversation between Choc Knox and Jason Farley from Choc Knox Unplugged to explore the difference and why it is vitally important to a country of immigrants.
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We live in a totalitarian condition disguised by the fact we still hold elections. Today, with help from Theology Pugcast, David explains why that is so and what must be recovered in Christian thinking if civil liberty is to be rebuilt.
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David begins a new series today by taking a story from a headline this week about Governor Youngkin “restoring parental rights” and explaining why he is doing no such thing. With this story, Matt Walsh’s explosive story about Vanderbilt’s transgender procedures on minors, and the help of Dr. Tom Price from Theology Pugcast, David explains the first building block.
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To close this series on the ruins of America’s legal tradition, rooted in the Western Legal Tradition, David explains the surest foundation any Christian can have that it can be restored. The foundation for that sure and certain hope, he explains, rests on a covenant seldom discussed in evangelicalism.
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In today’s episode, David uses a conception of the Constitution expressed by five U.S. Supreme Court justices in the 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, that affirmed the abortion holding in Roe v. Wade. He weaves it, along with a common every day legal practice involving millions of Americans a year, into the theme on which the whole story of the Bible rests.
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In the penultimate episode of this series, David addresses head on the prevailing pessimism for any expectation for cultural progress if Jesus is indeed returning soon. Is obedience then simply for the sake of personal sanctification? A close look at the thread of the Noahic covenant running from Genesis through the epistles gives us a different perspective that should attend our current labors.
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Eschatology affects the way we look at legislation. Today David explains how eschatology affects the way Christians will look at the Respect for Marriage Act pending in Congress and an even more fundamental issue—what does pursuing the Kingdom of God and His righteousness look like in this context.
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It is hard to work toward restoring our nation’s ruined legal and constitutional foundation when today’s prevailing eschatology says those efforts are divinely appointed to fail. The Christian eschatology that produced the Western Legal Tradition was rooted in the belief that by the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ all things were being made new. What changed? Is there any Scripture we can point to that objectively assures us our restorative labors in this world are not in vain? Absolutely!
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Last week David explained how a change in eschatology undermined the foundations of Western Legal Tradition. Today he begins to lay the foundation for how we need to think about time and history if that foundation is to be restored. He explains how an evolutionary view of time and history has replaced that which the Bible says is true of God and creation.
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Eschatology can be a contentious subject in evangelicalism. But few realize the critical role it played in development of the Western Legal Tradition. Even fewer know why today’s prevailing eschatology undermined and helped lead to the loss of the Western view of law. Don’t be “left behind” in your knowledge of the rise and fall of the Western view of law.
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Colleges increasingly minimize or fail even to teach Western Civilization, and that means the Western Legal Tradition on which our law and Constitution rest are jettisoned too. But what is that tradition and is it even important now? Does it relate to anything the U.S. Supreme Court does now?
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How is the Constitution relevant to our modern problems especially if it is going to be interpreted based on the common law meaning of the words at the time it was ratified? For example, how does that work when the “arms” referenced in the Second Amendment envisioned muskets? David walks us through Justice Clarence Thomas’ explanation of how the justices think about the common law, and then show how we all think the same way every day.
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Today, David takes Clarence Thomas’ majority opinion in the Court’s decision protecting the 2nd Amendment from encroachment by the state of New York to demonstrate a right understanding of common law and its importance to the Constitution. That five other Justices signed onto the opinion makes understanding it vitally important.
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In 20th century, teaching common law fell into disrepute in law schools. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court based two constitutional decisions on the common law. Today, David explains why Christian should care about common law and insist that an understanding and appreciation of it be diffused throughout the church.
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Today David takes the previous series—Escaping Futility—to the next level with Restoring the Ruins. In this opening episode, David tells how the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion decision in Dobbs exposed the ungodliness of his own views about law, and specifically the common law on which the Court’s majority and dissenting opinions rested. You will learn how the Court has laid waste to the foundation on which our Constitution and its values were framed. Knowing what created the ruins in which we live will help us know what needs to be restored.
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The pro-life community should rejoice that Roe v. Wade was reversed. Many praised Justice Alito’s majority opinion for its treatment of abortion at common law, laying waste to the Roe Court’s “historical” justification for abortion. What Justice Alito really did was ignore the text of the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause and preserve the Court’s made up doctrine of substantive due process that gave us abortion and will soon give us “transgender rights’. Today David explains how Justice Breyer’s dissenting opinion exposed Alito’s “textual” subterfuge.
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The late Francis Schaeffer set the standard for many Christians for how to engage in non-futile conversations with non-Christians. He clearly diagnosed the reason so many live futile lives. But his fellow Presbyterian, theologian and seminary professor Cornelius Van Til, took him to task for letting his diagnosis lead him into a futile apologetic that does not refute the post-modernists’ conclusion of meaningless. Today David “moderates” the debate between Schaeffer, Van Til, and the leading post-Modernist thinker, Jacques Derrida. Their “debate” will be helpful regardless of one’s Christian faith tradition.
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If Christians want to “join the conversation” in our culture in a way that can make a difference, they need to know what conversation they are in. But joining the conversation by conforming to the way the world thinks about things is futile. Today, David explains how evangelical leadership has led Christians into doing just that, which explains why Protestant cultural engagement has proved futile.
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In 1898 Abraham Kuyper said that people in America and Europe were “bent upon saving the ‘Christian Heritage.’” But things have been going from bad to worse on that front. Some think diffusing the tools of apologetics among Christians, particularly those in places of influence, is critical. So why did Kuyper say 100 years ago “apologetics have advanced us not one single step”? Find out why in today’s episode to avoid futility in “saving” our “Christian heritage.”
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Even as politics began to shape the Protestant view of Scripture during and following the Second Great Awakening, a new method for approaching and interpreting Scripture arose, drawn from effects in every field of study of the scientific revolution introduced by Francis Bacon. Sadly, as this new approach took hold in Protestantism, that continues to this day, science was in the process of rejecting that approach. It changed Christianity and the nature of the gospel itself and fostered its current cultural irrelevance.
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The worldview of many evangelicals who say the Bible is their basis for understanding the world, including law and government, don’t realize that their view of Scripture, and thus, their worldview, began to be shaped more by politics during and following the Second Great Awakening than by Scripture. If you want to understand “our times,” why so many Christians don’t heed the Bible in law and government, and why Protestantism is wandering aimlessly about, you need to listen.
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To build rightly, so that our lives and our political engagement do not prove meaningless, we must have a Scripturally informed worldview. Today, David uses excerpts from Creation Regained by Dr. Albert Wolters to show how many today limit Scripture’s relevance in ways they may not appreciate. He offers a free resource that demonstrates how the limitation works its way out in the pursuit of public policy—the Christian’s worldview conforming to that of the world.
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In 1898, Abraham Kuyper told seminarians at Princeton that Protestants were wandering aimlessly about and making no cultural progress. Today David looks at the relevance of Scripture to direction and cultural progress. Using excerpts from Albert Wolters’ Creation Regained, David begins to look at how evangelicalism has limited the scope of scripture and the practical consequences of having done so.
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The pro-life community rightly rejoiced when the leaked draft opinion in the Dobbs case indicated that the United States Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence may be overruled. But it was the response to the leaked opinion that revealed the true and broad scope of the civilization rebuilding project that is needed. Understanding what is at the root of the response is necessary if we are to escape living futile lives.
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Today David takes a new turn. He turns from laying the foundation upon which Christians should “build” their lives—including their political and governmental beliefs—to what building rightly on that foundation looks like. The first question, David says, is, “What are we trying to ‘build’ in the first place?”
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Today David uses audio clips of an interview with Jeff Shafer from a CrossPolitic podcast and excerpts from the testimony of a Christian policy expert in support of the transgender sports bill in Tennessee to demonstrate how easy it is for Christians not to understand the nature of the worldview underlying the issue they want to oppose—biological males competing in college against females—and wind up making arguments that rely on the worldview that produced the problem. “Wins” on that basis will be short-lived.
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If the God of creation is not the controlling principle for understanding and interpreting all of life, including the boundaries under which civil government can operate, then civil government itself will become the controlling principle. That is statism, and David, along with his guests, demonstrate that a statist philosophy is dominant in the Tennessee legislature.
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Last week David demystified the word “metaphysics” by giving examples in everyday life of things we do based on our metaphysic and how policy decisions are based on metaphysics. He explained the “metaphysic” underlying Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson’s inability to define a woman. Today, David explains the foundation of a Christian’s metaphysic.
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If we are going to build lives that matter, there are two things we must know. And Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson’s non-answer to “How do you define ‘woman’” is the perfect launching point for that discussion. If we don’t know why her answer is perfectly logical, we may not know what we need to know, particularly in the context of law, government, and politics.
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Today, David takes excerpts from the testimony provided by Reverend Paul Becker and attorney Jeff Shafer to the Senate Judiciary committee in support of the Marital Contract Recording Act to show how the Supreme Court has tried to destroy the foundation for civil law and how the testimony of these two men begins to build toward the restoration of that foundation.
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The Apostle Paul said that the work of some Christians—even if well-intention—will be “burned up” if not done rightly in relation to the foundation for all things laid by God in Jesus Christ. Today, David explains how a lawsuit filed this week directed to “saving women’s sports” operates. It leaves hanging the fundamental worldview question that, at some point, must be asserted and argued.
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For almost 100 years, lawyers have assured parents and home education families that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Pierce v. Society of Sisters is a strong precedent that will protect their God-given right to guide the nurture and education of their children. Today, David explains why that is a false hope. If you care about the future of the family, today’s episode is for you.
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Legislation pending in the Tennessee General Assembly about use of “preferred pronouns” in public schools provides the backdrop for today’s episode and a stark contrast to last week’s episode on the image of God. David explains how it can now be said that one has a “right” to be referred to by pronouns that do not correspond to one’s sex, and what that says about the state of Christianity in America.
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Law and government, to be just, depends on what we think it means to be human, because law is directed to persons and is to serve them. Thus, a wrong understanding of human identity will produce laws destructive of our humanity. Today, David talks about the ground of human identity that goes far beyond tired, vacuous evangelical cliches and philosophical mutterings about humans as “reasoning animals.” Beyond awesome is an apt description.
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Canada recently prohibited counseling based on the “myth” that persons are immutability “created” as male and female. Today David explains why Christians need not apologize for their belief in creation. Today’s alternatives to Creation ex nihilo are the same ones that have come and gone for centuries. David will explain why they are wholly inadequate—“mythical”—explanations of reality that need not be feared.
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We all have one fundamental, foundational belief that determines how we understand everything else, even if we don’t realize it. In today’s episode, David explains why the Son of God is a far bigger deal than he ever realized. Literally everything, he explains, rests on whether God is both Father and Son.
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This week David briefly rehearses how the United States Supreme Court is floundering to understand what marriage is and contrasts that with how belief in the Triune God provides the only answer to whether marriage is just two individuals or something greater than the two individuals. What, if anything, is really true about marriage vis-a-vis the individuals in the marriage?
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Without belief in the Triune God of the Bible, neither shock jock Howard Stern nor the United States Supreme Court can figure out what they really believe. If it weren’t so serious, you may be tempted to laugh at how SCOTUS, since a decision it made in 1965, has tried to figure out what marriage is.
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Today David explains why he says “Christianity as it is presented and practiced today has no solution to the problems we face” in our culture. He explains why in reference to Mississippi 15-week abortion ban and the way it was argued in the Supreme Court. The Church’s approach to law and government conforms to that of the world.
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Today David uses a secular humanist and a Christian theologian to discover the fundamental problem facing America and why neither Biden nor Trump have any answers that will stop America’s projectory. But he will also use the arguments made in the Dobbs case on abortion, recently before the U.S. Supreme Court, to demonstrate that evangelicals don’t understand the problem either and actually feed into it. Don’t miss this one.
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David starts a new series today, provoked by the “disconcerting moral dullness” of the arguments made to the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of Mississippi’s 15 week abortion ban. Today David explains why that the foundations of Western Civilization have already been repudiated by what Christian moral philosopher Michael Hanby calls a “revolution against being.” As he explains that revolution you will understand why no one spoke in Court about what it means to be a “person” under the 14th Amendment, what it means be to human.
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Today, David makes clear the direct connection between the Incarnation of Christmas and the Constitution. David takes a clip from the recent podcast with attorney Jeff Shafer on the oral arguments in the Dobbs abortion case and connects it to clips from the podcast with Dr. George Grant in which he asserted that denying the Incarnation makes for “flimsy arguments.” He will then connect that to legal arguments made even by Christian organizations.
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If you have never thought about the connection between what is revealed about God in the Incarnation and its relevance to civil liberty and law, you need to listen to today’s episode. David is joined by special guest, Dr. George Grant, pastor, theologian, writer, and lecturer, who will help us understand not only how the Incarnation itself explains how the world is supposed to work (perhaps a strange or new thought), but how it was misapplied to a particular Tennessee law, entangling the church in a denial of the Incarnation.
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If you are pro-life or feel like there’s something amiss with the U.S. Supreme Court, don’t miss today’s episode. Special guest Jeff Shafer, an attorney and Director of the Hale Institute at New Saint Andrews College, provides a sobering worldview take on the recent oral arguments in the Dobbs abortion case. Did the oral arguments reveal something fundamental about ourselves we need to face? Listen and share.
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The doctrine of stare decisis—whether SCOTUS should adhere to former decisions—dominated oral arguments on Wednesday in the most significant abortion case since Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992. Today, David looks at a key exchange in the arguments to demonstrate why Justice Thomas has correctly said the Court’s application of that doctrine violates the U.S. Constitution.
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Next Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on what to do with Roe v. Wade. If you are pro-life, this is a must listen. David again uses the words of Justice Clarence Thomas to explain why using “stare decisis” to perpetuate for decades wrong decisions like Roe violates the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution. You will know why “Black Robed Legislators” is an apt description of the Court.
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Previously, David has explained the history of the doctrine of stare decisis that is now used to uphold Roe v. Wade. Today he takes a 2019 opinion of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in which he said stare decisis “does not comport with our judicial duty under Article III” and explains how it is used to provide cover for a “living constitution” the Court can manipulate.
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Today David explains what you need to know to appreciate the oral arguments to be made in the Supreme Court on December 1st in the most significant abortion case since 1992. Stare Decisis will be key to whether Roe v. Wade is overturned. David exposes how liberals have ripped stare decisis from its common law context, twisted it to create a “living Constitution,” and then used it to protect the “new rights” created by their constitutional malfeasance.
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With important gun rights and abortion cases now being argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, you must understand the role of stare decisis—the use of past precedents—and its rather arbitrary application by the Court. Listen and you’ll know why liberals like U.S. Senator Blumenthal make stare decisis a litmus test for judicial confirmation.
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This spring, when the Tennessee House of Representatives was critical of a Tennessee judge who tried to rewrite our election laws, lawyers and judges rushed to her defense claiming the legislature was violating the “independence of the judiciary.” Today, David exposes the wrongheaded understanding of judicial independence that is prevalent today and why it is dangerous to the preservation of our constitution.
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The Wizard of Oz looked powerful, but it was an illusion, and the same is true of U.S. Supreme Court. Today, David explains why the Founders said federal courts were “the least dangerous branch” of the government and how our elected officials, either from ignorance or cowardice, have fostered the illusion that the Court is the most powerful branch because it “interprets” the Constitution.
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In today’s episode, David explains how the United States Supreme Court has perverted the U.S. Constitution to undermine the authority of states to deal with basic morals legislation, particularly in regard to human sexuality. Understanding the Court’s constitutional malfeasance will set your teeth on edge.
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Few in the legal profession know what the Ninth Amendment is. But as David explains in today’s episode it embodies the fundamental structure and nature of the entire U.S. Constitution and the relationship between the federal and state governments. It actually reflects the rule of law.
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Most consider the Constitution the “supreme law of the Land” and, in a certain sense it is. But its words, phrases, and concepts were based on another law that precedes the Constitution and by which it must be understood. Not knowing this pre-existing law means one does not really understand the Constitution. Find out in today’s episode what law informs our understanding of the Constitution.
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It seems that liberals understand better than conservatives that all law and the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the U.S. Constitution serve as invisible “public school” teachers. In today’s episode, David shows how the Bible, a key Supreme Court abortion precedent, Casey, and a ground-breaking book, After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gods in the 90’s, demonstrate the truth that law is a teacher.
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DOJ’s lawsuit against Texas and its new abortion law and the brief just filed by abortionists with the U.S. Supreme Court opposed to Mississippi’s abortion law both tout the “rule of law.” David explains why the rule of law cannot conceivably be at issue in any abortion case and sets the stage for a new series on “the law,” what is law and why should Joe and Susy Citizen, non-lawyers, even care.
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Today’s episode wraps up the Rule of Law series by bringing the creational law order of God that underlies the rule of law to the issue of racial segregation in the 1950’s and 60’s— from Blackstone to Birmingham.
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Today, David tackles the question: If the rule of law is rooted in “the laws of nature and nature’s God,” then how is that to be known and understood so that civil government might know how to enact civil laws that conform to the rule of law? What, for example, is the role of human reason?
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Today, David explains what the rule of law is and the Christian basis for it. From his explanation, it will be easy to see why the rule of law no longer exists in America, even though we still like to use the phrase.
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Americans pride ourselves on being a nation of law and not men, the “rule of law.” In today’s episode, David explains that it no longer exists because evangelicals by and large abandoned the very foundation on which the rule of law rests, and he gives a quick overview of what happened in the world of thought and in 20th century America that led to evangelicalism’s failure in the sphere of law.
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The stage was set for the development of the Rule of Law in the Western legal tradition with the investiture struggle in the mid-1100’s. Today, David takes a 30,000 foot level survey of that history and shows that some of our laws make no sense apart from the influence of Christianity.
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Today, David sets the stage for looking at the “Rule of Law” on which American’s pride themselves, helping us discover what that phrase really means and what, if anything, it now means. But he lays the groundwork for that discussion in key statements made in the brief just filed with the U.S. Supreme Court urging the reversal of Roe v. Wade. This is an episode you will want to share with friends.
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Today, David explains how he came to see that the “why and how” of his political endeavors for over 20 years fell short of God’s “why and how,” and how seeing that changed the focus of FACT’s work in relation to its policy mission of advocating for God’s design for marriage and the family, life, and religious liberty.
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Today, David returns to a statement made in 1898 by politician and theologian Abraham Kuyper at Princeton, “Protestantism alone wanders about in the wilderness without aim or direction, moving hither and thither, without making any progress,” and explains why that is so.
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In today’s episode, David takes Dr. George Grant’s exhortation to start our understanding of everything, including policy, with theology—who is God and what has He done—rather than anthropology—who am I and what is going on around me by looking at a view of the work of Christ of primary importance to the early Church that has long been forgotten. Without it, though, Protestants “wander aimlessly, hither and thither,” as Abraham Kuyper said even as far back as 1898.
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In today’s episode, David calls attention to an issue of primary importance during the first 300 years of the church and an aspect of the gospel that has long been forgotten and neglected, but when understood, explains why all Christians in the United States must be engaged in politics, even if the particular way in which individual Christians engage will differ.
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The timing of this week’s episode with July 4th weekend couldn’t be better. The U.S. Supreme Court let stand this week a decision by a lower court holding that a Virginia public school district’s policy of basing the use of restrooms on biological sex was unconstitutional. David explains how the theological shift that took place at the turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries and that dominates Christianity today led to that result. Our nation’s French Revolution has arrived.
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As David continues to provide an answer to why Christians should be engaged in politics, he explores why Abraham Kuyper, three short years before becoming prime minister of the Netherlands in 1901, said, “Protestantism alone wanders about in the wilderness without aim or direction, moving hither and thither, without making any progress.” In America, the Ozzie and Harriet days seemed to say otherwise, but this week a Gallup Poll said 82% of Americans believe religious influence is in decline. What happened that Kuyper perhaps foresaw?
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At Restoring the Vision, Dr. George Grant said that the first issue in public policy is theology, who is God, what has He done, and what is He doing. Sound impractical? Today, David gives three examples, one taken from a question asked him this week by a state policy director, to demonstrate the practicality and wisdom of starting with theology in dealing with legislators.
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Ever heard it said that Christians should spend time on evangelism, mission endeavors, and growing in personal holiness as if that excluded or at least minimized Christian engagement in politics? It almost sounds non-Christian to disagree. But, disagree we must if we start the Gospel in the right place. In today’s episode David gives two reasons for why so many Christians retreat from or even shun politics.
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In this second episode in the new series “The Why and How of Christian Political Engagement, David takes up something Dr. George Grant said recently at Restoring the Vision seminar that is seldom considered in law and politics, “Everything begins with God is God and we are not. That means, from a policy perspective, everything begins not with anthropology, but with theology.” Why, David asked, might that not be where Christians begin their view of politics, law, and government?
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Today, David begins a new series entitled “The Why and How of Christian Political Engagement.” In this introductory episode David talks about the fact that the only thing harder than finding the truth is not losing it. Specifically, David points to some common conceptions within evangelicalism that call into question whether it has lost the truths it once knew. During the series, David will use material from the recent Restoring the Vision seminar to show how that loss has affected the why and how of Christian political engagement.
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In this last episode in David’s short series on critical race theory, David takes a controversial statement about the poor made in last week’s episode and explores how critical race theory, along with the economic precepts of socialism and Black Lives Matter, cannot be embraced by Christians, at least not if they have a God-centered worldview.
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In this second installment on Critical Race Theory, David looks at a recent editorial by Dr. Ben Carson and Kristi Noem and the confused thinking it represents. Touting American values to defend against criticism of American values begs the question. But there is a powerful and beautiful way to respond to the criticism of American culture that Critical Race Theory is trying to address if it were just lived out by those who profess to be Christians.
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Today, David begins a new three part series on Critical Race Theory from the perspective of a Genesis 1 Christian (see February 19th podcast) by looking at a comment made this week by former President George W. Bush about “Protestantism.” David looks at Bush’s comment to demonstrate how professing Christians can have their beliefs co-opted and perverted by Critical Race Theory and how Christians separate their Christianity from their politics. Don’t miss the first episode in this new short series.
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Today David discusses how, were he still a state Senator, he would have analyzed and voted on legislation recently passed by the legislature that requires public schools to give parents notice 30 days prior to “commencing instruction of a sexual orientation curriculum or gender identity curriculum.” Looks, David will show, can be deceiving and how voting for a bill like this may even reflect how one really thinks of justification and sanctification. His conclusion might surprise you.
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Psalm 36:4 says that the wicked are those who do not despise and reject evil. In this week’s episode David reflects on that what the Psalmist wrote in light of the fact that professing Christians on a legislative committee voted to mandate that private insurance companies cover infertility treatments even when they would produce children outside the bonds of marriage between a man and woman. Just how God-centered is that which passes as Christianity today?
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In today’s episode David used theologian Herman Bavinck’s work on God and Creation to explore how a God-centered Creational Worldview applies to pending legislation mandating that private insurance companies cover infertility treatments even when the two insureds are not married and even of the same sex. You will be blessed by the richness and depth of Bavinck’s thought on how Creation grounds the whole of one’s relation to God, the world, and salvation. The difference between Genesis 1 and 2 Christians and Genesis 3 Christians is made clear.
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On today’s episode, David discusses the worldview behind a fertility insurance mandate bill to be considered by Tennessee’s legislature next week, Senate Bill 425/House Bill 1379. He demonstrates how the legislation ties into and follows along with U.S. Supreme Court decisions like Roe v. Wade that flatly denied any created, moral realities and redefined the world. And he explains how the legislation is consistent with the Genesis 3 only form of Christianity vis-à-vis Genesis 1 and 2 Christianity that was discussed with Dr. P. Andrew Sandlin on the February 19th episode.
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In this week’s episode, David shares excerpts from his conversation with Jeff Shafer, former senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, about House Bill 1079 that is scheduled for a vote in a state House subcommittee this coming week. The proposed legislation would directly and expressly put before the United States Supreme Court the question of whether, when a man and woman marry and conceive a child, the Constitution “divorces” the man from his wife and a father from his child in order to advance an unfettered right to abortion.
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In this week’s episode, David is joined by Dr. George Grant, a Nashville area pastor, author of numerous books, and sought-after speaker, to discuss how one’s understanding of God’s nature and character helps us make sense of His works in creation, and , in turn, the goal of politics. Until Christians understand these things, whatever successes we experience will never endure. We will find ourselves fighting the same battles over and over again.
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Can we live a “purpose driven life”, and it be, in the end, meaningless, useless, and to no avail? In this weeks episode David explores how to avoid this being your conclusion as your life draws to an end.
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This week’s episode focuses on having a purpose for one’s life that does not “miss the mark,” which will lead to discouragement, despair, and frustration. But David puts it in the context of what led him to realize that he had missed the mark in much of his adult life and in his more than 20 years in political engagement. Yet, that realization led to a new, invigorating, and meaningful way of seeing and understanding his work in the political world. Hopefully, his story will encourage you in whatever it is you do.
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With all the talk today about eschatology—the study of last things—and the prevailing belief that things are supposed to get worse before Christ‘s return, David asks if it is possible that God’s eschatology is actually is very positive and is found in Genesis 1? David will build upon what Dr. Sandlin said (Feb 19th) about “Genesis 3 Christians” versus “Genesis 1 and 2 Christians,” and he will get to what lies at the hope Christians can have that what they are doing now matters even in this life. Tune in to “see” what invisible thing God has been doing with His creation since Adam!
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In this week’s episode, David takes a clip from last week’s interview with Dr. P Andrew Sandlin about the hope that Genesis 1 and 2 Christians have compared to that of Genesis 3 Christians, and ties it to some New Testament passages that begin to demonstrate a perspective on which to ground the things we purpose to do. Hope resides where our purpose and God‘s purposes align.
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Today, David is joined by Dr. Andrew Sandlin, Founder and President of the Center for Cultural Leadership, to discuss his newest book, Creational Worldview, and how a foundation for hope and purpose in our current personal and social circumstances must be laid in Genesis 1 and 2 in order for the redemption story that begins in Genesis 3 to make sense. Sandlin asserts, “If we get creation wrong, we can’t get the gospel right.” And if we don’t get the gospel right, we won’t get anything else right, which leads to lack of purpose and hopelessness. You will not want to miss this episode! To learn more about Dr. Sandlin and Center for Cultural Leadership click here.
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Today’s episode explores the historical precedent (Christian Political Action in an Age of Revolution) by which we might expect that a truly Christian engagement in politics will generate serious opposition within the Christian community and even among the clergy. It promises to be eye-opening, not just from an historical perspective, but based on David’s own experiences. Why? Because the message of “peace, peace” and charity above truth is not new among the people of God. As you listen, you may begin to wonder what might have a greater potential to bring reformation in the church than people in the pews engaging in politics from a truly God-centered perspective, not a save-America perspective. It could lead to needed conversations about who God is and the relationship of God to His creation.
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As Christians evaluate how they should respond to the “social question” with which our society is confronted, David notes in today’s episode the two kinds of conservatives that will oppose Christian engagement in politics. Christians must be careful not to fall into either of those two camps.
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In today’s episode of David’s “Hope and Purpose” series, he confronts one of the objections that will surely be raised when Christians take seriously the understanding that all things—including government and law—are under and subject to God and to laws pertaining to the nature given to them by God: the separation of church and state. He discusses the difference between “separation” and “independence” and their different effects
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Last week David defined the “social question” we face—a time in which the present state of things cannot continue and what is at issue is whether are the received structures of society and government are appropriate for the current age. For those who think this is not the question, David explains how even Pope Francis has called into question a free market system and explains the Biblical corrective of the inequality that he perceives, which Abraham Kuyper perceived 100 years earlier.
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To have hope and purpose, one must have a clear understanding of what is at the root of our present situation. Otherwise, hope will wane when the purpose hoped for is not being and probably will not be realized. In today’s episode, David gets at the root of our present situation, which was predicted over 100 years ago. David uses this episode to help us hear what was then ignored.
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Today begins a new series entitled “Hope and Purpose” which arises out of recent political outcomes and a constituent’s question, “Is the Republic lost? What can be done? In this first episode, David begins to lay the foundation for hope and purpose relative to our nation and its political life by asserting that we must first diagnose the nature of the situation. Like the fear engendered by an undiagnosable illness, hope for “saving the republic” must first be put in the context of the problem we face. But we must also diagnose whether it is worth saving and, if so, why and for what purpose.
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David brings the recent series on civil liberty to a close by exposing how the last element of the U.S. Supreme Court’s destruction of civil liberty with its decision in Roe v. Wade, namely, its misuse of the Due Process Clause in the 14th Amendment to make up a liberty that was completely foreign to the common law understanding of that word at the time it was used. You will learn how the Court used “liberty” in the Due Process Clause to do the very thing the clause was intended to prevent.
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Today David continues his explanation of how the U.S. Supreme Court manipulated the words in the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause to avoid the meaning the words in that Clause had in the common law at the time the amendment was adopted. This week he focuses on how the Court misconstrued the word “liberty” in the Due Process Clause. Understanding where the Court went wrong is critical to understanding what must be attacked when states defend new abortion laws.
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On today’s installment in David’s series on civil liberty, he explains why the common law and its understanding of absolute and relative rights and duties is so important. David believes that when you understand these concepts, you will understand the purpose of the 5th and 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clauses. And, you will begin to understand how the United States Supreme Court has highjacked the Due Process Clause to destroy civil liberty.”
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Today’s episode begins David’s discussion of what liberty means in the context of civil liberty. Today’s context lays the foundation by making clear what civil law is and how natural or God-given rights (and corresponding duties) are to be distinguished from civil rights and duties. Without an understanding of these distinctions, civil liberty becomes meaningless.
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Today’s episode will be a shocker. David covers the constitutional history showing why the First Amendment’s two religion clauses do not apply to the conflict that exists today between Christians and civil laws that impinge on what Christians do or do not want to have to do, such as designing wedding cakes for same-sex weddings or providing abortifacients. David shows that today’s problems are not related to the problem of separating ecclesiastical establishments from civil government, which was the problem to which both religion clauses (and the prohibition on religious tests) were directed.
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Today David takes the history behind the liberty of conscience and applies it to the infamous correspondence between the Danbury Baptists in Connecticut and Thomas Jefferson and his infamous “wall of separation” response to the Baptists. You may be surprised to find that what Jefferson actually said was perfectly consistent with the liberty of conscience the First Amendment was designed to protect.
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Today’s podcast is the last installment in understanding the concept of the freedom of conscience that grounded the First Amendment Free Exercise Clause. David examines how the Puritans understood the freedom of conscience and how it was made free. With this knowledge, we will begin to understand why liberty of conscience and free exercise was so important. Once freed, it was not to be brought back under bondage by the government.
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In this episode, David continues his look at how liberty of conscience was understood and how it framed the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause. Specifically, he looks at the “bondage” under which conscience operated as prelude to understanding the nature of it is liberty and why its liberty was so important.
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In this episode, David looks to the theological roots of the conscience, the role it plays in our lives, and why it was of such importance to the people of England during the English Reformation, providing background to the liberty of conscience that became the Liberty of Conscience Provision in the Tennessee Constitution and the Free Exercise of Religion Provision in the First Amendment.
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It’s no secret why the First Amendment is under attack. When the theological roots of law are not understood, many parts of the law appear to lack an underlying source of validity. In this episode, David explains the secularization of the law and provides insight into the theological foundations of the Establishment Clause in the United States Constitution.
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They say you can’t fight the Establishment, but don’t tell that to those dissenters—the Puritans—who took on the King of England and the direction in which he was moving the established Church of England. Today’s episode introduces the historical backdrop you must have if you want to have any clue about the First Amendment’s religion clauses—the fight between the Crown, as head of the established Church of England, and the Puritan dissenters.
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If you want to know why Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court is such a pitched battle, then today’s episode will explain why. David takes a look at how the United States Supreme Court rejected God’s relevance to human law and effectively deified itself in place of God. [Playing off the Latin for Trinity, Judge Barrett would make up part of the “Novemity” (9 person god) that rules the United States.] It is the age-old problem confronted by Christians of rulers thinking they are God’s voice on the earth, that they mediate God to us instead of Christ.
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Who would have ever thought that the Christian doctrine that Jesus was fully God and fully man had anything to do with civil liberty? In this episode, David explains how the doctrine became the foundation for civil liberty in the West and and how the United States Supreme Court has presumed to vest in itself powers that belong only to God without any protest from the evangelical church.
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In this episode, David introduces a new series which examines the idea of liberty. In the series, he will trace the history of liberty and show two fundamental types of liberty—liberty of conscious and personal liberty—were critical to the development of civil liberty and show how these three types of liberty were infused into the US Constitution. Today’s podcast covers the experiments in government and liberty up to time of Rome, and how those experiments paved the way for the Christian conception of liberty.
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Drawing parallels between the rise of the Renaissance period and what we are seeing in the modern church, David examines the dangers of a spiritual life that ignores the dual nature of man as both body and spirit and what happens when we deny the human condition.
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In this episode, David examines the root of the “civil unrest” that is burning down some of our nation’s larger cities and destroying the properties and livelihoods of innocent persons. Through the lens of Russian dissent Alexander Solzhenitsyn, he examines the question, “How did the West decline from its triumphal march to its present sickness? Have there been fatal turns and losses of direction in its development?”
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In this episode, David examines a court ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and their understanding (or misunderstanding) of biological sex. In legal practice, we have learned through the years to manipulate the law to fit our arguments when perhaps the truth is not on our side. But what is the law for then, if not to determine and/or protect the truth?
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The ideological battles of today are no different than the battle that has been raging for centuries. And that is the rejection of God and the elevation of humanistic philosophy. Theologians and political theorists have always posed these questions regarding the evolution of society as to whether or not God is the head of it all. Perhaps the fight for religious liberty is not the point at all, but simply the declaration that God is the beginning and the end.
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Can Christians take on the principles of liberalism, denying God's relevance to the social order, and serve the cause of religion and freedom? David will discuss the idea of principle versus moderation and tolerance.
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Continuing to look at Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's speech to Harvard in 1978, and the prophetic nature by which he spoke of the unrest in our Western society and just how easy our entire culture falls into despair. Without God, hope is a frivolous venture when it is dependent on an economy or the whims of the media. Quite incredible that where we were in 1978, seems to be right where we are in 2020.
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Often times when voting for a political effort, there is a feeling that we must resign ourselves to voting for the lesser of two evils. And that is a terrible outlook on politics. But when two conservative candidates run television ads going for the jugular in order to get ahead in the polls, one is left considering, what really makes a good, or a Godly candidate? David takes a look into a 1978 speech from Alexander Solzhenitsyn and dives into that question.
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David discusses the Tennessee Governor's current use of the state's emergency powers statute and takes a look at how that applies to the separation of powers. Also, you might know that we are in the middle of the primaries for the U.S. Senate seat. And, you might have seen some negative ads going back and forth between two candidates in particular. Is this politics? Is this what the voters expect? Better yet, how should two men who confess to be followers of Christ engage in political debate as candidates?
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Many know that Tennessee has been embattled over the last 2 years in passing meaningful legislation in our state dealing with abortion. And while members of the pro-life community have been split on how to get this done, we remain united in the mission to protect life in the womb. Now that we have passed the Governor's heartbeat bill, it is up to the courts to decide how much, if any, of our law will remain enforceable as it will inevitably go head to head with the precedent set by the Casey decision and the viability standard. In this episode, we are taking a look into how court opinions should and should not inform how these proceedings play out.
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Supreme Court decisions regarding family, life and religious liberty issues have been coming fast and furious in recent weeks. And while we have had some victories and have reason to be hopeful, we are also hesitant to see these wins as but a momentary reprieve from a very tumultuous and uncertain future. These rulings have to do with laws and statutes that can be changed with the rising and lowering of the tide. Some are also based on regulations in which a sitting president has the power to continue or restrict. All in all, our Constitutional rights are not being upheld by the Court in a manner that guarantees them or preserves them for future generations. But if 2020 has taught us anything, a sure thing is just wishful thinking.
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We continue our discussion from last week regarding man's true nature of depravity and how that influenced our Founder's thinking in creating a government of law and order, checks and balances and a separation of powers. From the Federalist Papers and even a letter written by George Washington, these men knew that crafting a governmental structure made for liberty was going to be hard-fought not only to create but also to keep. And this week, on this nation's 244th birthday, we still find ourselves grappling with these ideas and on the verge of tyranny while holding loosely to the ideas that continue to preserve our liberties to this day.
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With cries around the country to "defund the police" and replace our law enforcement agents with social workers, it is more clear than ever that many are deceived by one prevailing thought of the age, that people are inherently good. We even hear this in churches despite the Gospel's clarity regarding our sin nature and our need for redemption, our need for Christ. We will begin to take a look at man's true nature of depravity and how this truth impacted the Founder's thinking in structuring our government.
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What a disappointing week. We'll talk about two decisions that came out of the U.S. Supreme Court and a shocker from Justice Gorsuch. But also here in Tennessee, we lost the battle for a solid constitutional argument to protect the life of the unborn. The news will make its rounds and Tennessee GOP lawmakers will pat themselves on the back about how pro-life they are leading into the November elections. And, major conservative news outlets will shout, "victory!" But don't be fooled. Nothing special happened here in Tennessee. We just did what everyone else has already done and the bill will soon be headed towards another bitter defeat in the courts. It could have all been so different.
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Our nation is in turmoil. Our cities are being burned. And where is the church in all of this? Where can we find the truth necessary to bring clarity and healing to a nation so overtaken by brokenness? May we submit that in order to find the right solution to a problem, we need to first ensure that we are asking the right questions. But it seems the left already has all of the answers. And as history tends to repeat itself here in America, the church simply follows the cues of a broken culture.
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Church leaders across America were disheartened, and some outraged at the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding Gavin Newsome's (Governor of California) restrictions on church gatherings due to COVID-19. In a 5-4 decision, Chief Justice Roberts sided with liberal justices upholding the Governor's order as constitutional. The question we are asking here is, do we want to be ruled by the courts or do we believe in federalism and state's rights, even when we don't get our way? It is a worthy conversation and one that Christians must pay attention to closely.
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On Wed, May 27th, David had the opportunity to testify before the Tennessee House Public Health Subcommittee regarding two abortion bills in Tennessee, one being the Rule of Law Life Act. While both bills might have the goal of protecting the life of the unborn, we believe that only the Rule of Law Life Act makes a strong enough constitutional argument to the have the potential of overturning Roe v Wade in the Supreme Court. Why? Because we are arguing for the common law absolute right to life based on the 9th Amendment of the US Constitution, outside of the precedent of the 14th Amendment rulings of Roe v Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v Casey (1992).
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We've said it before and we'll say it again. Words matter! And time and time again, we find court opinions wrought with confusion on how to apply the meaning of words in light of prior rulings and the Constitution, in many cases, words which are all together clear and unambiguous. It is bad enough that courts are confused on the meaning of words like life and liberty. But we find now that even words like man, woman, husband, mother and biological simply don't seem to ring true anymore in the court of law. When a judge feels he or she has the liberty reinterpret a statute simply be redefining a word, we have lost the ideas of separation of powers and federalism altogether.
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The 5th and 14th Amendments of the US Constitution grants the right of due process to every citizen. At one time in our history, we knew what words meant. But as those in power seek more power, we have learned to expand the meaning of words in order to expand authority. Substantive due process now exists because the word "process" has been expanded to include "rights." This idea gives courts the ability to now act as policy makers and a secondary legislative branch by using the 14th Amendment to expand rights it deems appropriate to all Americans. Substantive due process is the mechanism by which courts have made abortion, marriage and now education not state, but federal issues. It is inherently an expansion of government.
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One thing we are learning from the Coronavirus is that many leaders in government including those sitting on the bench do not understand the Constitution and the limitations of their power. One of the most glaring instances was the case in Dallas, Texas where a business owner was jailed for opening her salon. But more than that, the judge required an apology, an act of contrition, or forced speech. The ruling was so outrageous, that Texas' Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General all stepped in on behalf of the business owner. And the Texas Supreme Court ordered the woman to be freed from jail. The question is, how can we execute emergency powers without throwing liberty out the window?
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Essentially, the Latin term "stare decisis" refers to precedent. Courts traditionally make rulings not only based on the written law, but also based on past rulings. The idea is to cause the court, in general, to be consistent and predictable in its rulings and exact justice evenly from person to person. The problem is when the court blindly uses precedent in spite of the law, reinterpreting or bending the law to fit its interpretation and thereby becoming a de facto legislative body. Frankly, we could use less precedent and more Constitution in our court proceedings today.
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There is no question that we have lost our way as a nation. We are a people deeply divided not only on major cultural issues, but even to the core of the meaning of the Constitution and how we interpret and apply law. In essence, we will either return to the principles of our founding, or we will take an "out with the old and in with the new" approach to our future. Our sincere hope is that we would return to a deeply held desire for liberty, and a strong adherence to the separation of powers so eloquently prescribed by our Constitution.
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Can our republican form of government exist outside of a good and moral people? Our founding fathers didn't think so. In fact, John Adams had this to say, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." The Constitution is not some sort of magical document. Its function is primarily to both promote a government by the consent of the governed and provide for a separation of powers within the government itself. As Adams saw it, an immoral people can consent to bad government. The Federalist Papers (1787-1788) echo this sentiment. We must return to the ideals of our founding. We must return to God.
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The 9th Amendment says, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." What are the "other rights"? Our Founders' understanding of government and law at the time of the nation's founding was deeply rooted in common law and the idea that our rights are pre-governmental. And, the government's role is to secure those rights. Professor Adam MacLeod of Faulkner University discusses the common law and its role in our government and lives even today.
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During this time of crisis and quarantine, our liberties are being tested and boundaries being pushed by civil government. And this has been alarming for churches as worshippers are being asked, and in some cases mandated not to meet for worship. But is this truly a religious liberty issue? Is civil disobedience called for in response? We will discuss some of the history behind our first amendment and how Christians should view their relationship with civil authority.
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The words that we use have meaning. In fact, we can know much about a person by the words they use. And especially in the case of courts and legislatures, the words we use define the worldview by which we operate under the law. So, words matter. But what if words lose their meaning, or perhaps some choose to haphazardly and unilaterally redefine them? How does that impact how we understand and interpret our laws? And what of the idea of civility? Do I have to use "your" definition, or re-definition of a word in order to be considered civil, or tolerant?
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In the wake of the Coronavirus "pandemic," we take a look at our state and federal government's response and their respective authority to issue mandates to private businesses, churches and the public at large. How should we as Christians respond to government authority when it comes to how and when we worship in our religious institutions? There is a balance between being prudent in our obedience to government authority versus denying God's sovereignty over all things.
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In an upcoming article in the Harvard Law Review, Lynn Adelman writes that "the decisions of the Roberts Court are contributing substantially to the fact that ordinary Americans have so little political power." Really? How about when the Court in 1973 and 2015 came up with its own definition of the word "liberty" and used the 14th Amendment to abolish amendments in over 30 state constitutions, amendments democratically passed by a majority of voters in those states? Could that perhaps contribute to "Americans having so little political power?" Let's talk about the Court's political power.
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We have discussed for a few weeks now the issue of judicial supremacy and its influence on our legislative process. Well, here in Tennessee, it's alive and well. This week, the TN Senate Judiciary Committee revealed the draft of the Governor's heartbeat bill SB2196. During the hearing, both the person responsible for drafting the bill and the bill's sponsor excitedly announced the country's most restrictive abortion laws that "the courts would allow." We don't legislate anymore here in Tennessee. We just ask the court's permission to protect our citizens. That's where we are. If you are a part of the pro-life movement and care about abortion legislation, this is the episode that you share with everyone!
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When working with legislatures, you quickly find that there are good bills and bad bills. But even bills with the very best of intentions can be bad. Why? Because of a lack of findings. Especially when your bill deals with a contentious issue such as abortion, you can almost guarantee that your bill is headed to court if it passes. And to have any hope of passing the scrutiny of the court, the bill must have ample findings such as expert testimony, documented research and so on. Otherwise, you leave the court to draw its own conclusions.
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Well, we’ve heard back on our petition to the Tennessee Department of Health regarding our state marriage forms and per the Attorney General’s office, they have decided to….do nothing. Big shocker there. We also learned conclusively that our attorney general is a judicial supremacist, which is to say that he is unwilling to defend the Tennessee state constitution and happy to relinquish law-making authority to the courts.
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