The Observer, January 25, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 14
Editorial: Republican agenda should not include Biblical legislation
I've had the privilege of hearing presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee speak on numerous occasions and each of these have left me thinking the same question: Does this man really belong in the Oval Office, or does he belong on a pulpit?
I can't fault Huckabee entirely. This matter runs deep into the very fundamentals of modern conservative ideals, which have recently been injected with an influx of evangelical principles. I am a member of the Republican Party and support conservative initiatives, but never before have I been left so underwhelmed with the platform of my party. In a time when our national debt totals over $9 trillion, our armies are traversing the Iraqi terrain in what's becoming an intensely unpopular military conflict, and the economy is in an overly fragile state, I am somewhat appalled that some of the most important points on a Republican agenda are what a woman can do with her unborn fetus and what homosexuals can do in their spare time.
In actuality, I don't quite see where any of these issues factor into any agenda. The Supreme Court has determined that the right to privacy is an inherent, if not explicit, right by virtue of the Ninth Amendment. Additional rights to privacy can be found in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments as well. As a Republican, I am all for a reduction in government, but how can this be accomplished when Washington feels the need to peer behind the closed doors of its citizens? I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that creating jobs to replace those lost from outsourcing, or securing our borders from illegal immigration, or rolling out long-term economic plans to stimulate a hemorrhaging market takes precedence over private matters confined to either a doctor's office or a bedroom.
We can use more of the Constitution to further explain why it is ludicrous to hold these values in high regard when choosing the next leader of the free world. I implore any person to show me where the U.S. Constitution delegates the teachings of the Bible as federal law. If someone can do so, I'll get off my soapbox with great haste.
Like many Americans, I am a God-fearing individual. Faith is something I do hold dear and the Bible is no foreign text to me. Therefore I'd like to ask these evangelical conservatives a few questions. According to Exodus 21:7, I am allowed to sell my daughter. What would be a decent price for her? In Exodus 35:2, it says that working on the Sabbath Day is punishable by death. How many politicians do we now have to kill? Proverbs 12:4 alleges that women are second-class citizens. Do we hold this to be true? Deuteronomy 21:18-21 tells us that stubborn children should be stoned. In all honesty, the Bible contains the most ridiculous (and slightly outdated) laws ever observed by any people.
I think we should follow them all if we plan to follow other Bible decrees, such as marriage is a union exclusively between a man and a woman, or that "thou shalt not abort a fetus," or "thou shalt not use stem cells for research to find cures for debilitating illnesses." Evangelicals enjoy utilizing Exodus 20:13. The law states that "thou shalt not murder." Obviously, it's a necessary law. It's also one that the government has provided for. America has dozens of laws against murder, and not a single one outlined abortion or stem cell research as grounds for murder charges. I'm sorry, but I'm placing my bet with federal statutes, considering they actually mean something in a court of law.
I have no problem turning to the Bible for spiritual strength. But Biblical legislation is something that should be left to those standing on the pulpit, not those standing behind a podium displaying the seal of the President of the United States of America.
On Jan. 20 of next year, a new president will be sworn in to lead our country and to lead the free world in its pursuit of peace, stability, and prosperity. The last time I checked the Presidential oath, the new President must swear to uphold the laws of the Constitution in a nation that was founded under God, not created in God's image.
