Friday, November 16, 2007

The Constitution is Not Scripture

As someone who has actually read the document and who favors an originalist reading of it, it may sound strange to title this post as I have. Folks who have seen through the "living document" argument are often quite fanatical in their devotion to the text of our country's basic law.

What provoked my thought is a line from National Review today, an editorial about Mitt Romney's Mormonism. (I am more interested in why anyone would name a child Mitt than I am in his religion!). The NR editors wrote: "It is tempting to say that citizens should never consider a candidate’s religion when voting".

This reminds me of how the legal rules of the Constitution can be misunderstood as some kind of scriptural ethical command to the people. The Constitution is a legal text, not an American Bible.
Consequently, just because the Constitution bars the state from setting up a religious test for holding public office does NOT mean that the citizenry who vote must avoid dealing with a candidate's religion. The Constitution is limiting the power of the state, not the brains of the people.

If Johnny Jones is a Scientologist, the state may not raise the issue of his religion. He can run for office like anyone else, and if elected, hold office. But the people are the ones who theoretically hold the power and we can consider any damn thing we like, no matter whether the Constitution protects it or not. The document is there largely to limit the government precisely so that that people can make up their own minds....as they choose. So if Americans decide it is a bad idea for Johnny Jones to be elected, because Scientology is a nuthouse cult, they have every right and indeed the duty to do so.

Same for a Muslim candidate. Especially for a Muslim candidate.

And if Americans decide, for whatever reason, that it's bad to have a woman President, that's not a thought crime...yet...it's a free decision.

Again, the Constitution limits the power of the state, not the minds or values of the people. It's not revelation.

Amen.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving. You're one of the people I admire this year, because you've picked a tough intellectual road to hoe since, like me, you're probably surrounded by more liberals than you can shake a stick at. Take care!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...