(LifeSiteNews) — Americans have loved their country and their Constitution, but we should not be surprised to find out that, after generations of playing fast and loose with the rules, we find ourselves in a tremendous pickle. What we think the Constitution says, and what it actually says, are likely two different things. In almost all cases, both liberals and conservatives accuse their opponents of violating it, even while they do themselves.
Few elected officials obey the strict construction that the 10th Amendment demands. Political expediency has required them to allow many things simply because they are popular. Social security, national parks, monuments, forests, wildlife refuges, and many of the cabinet departments, have absolutely no constitutional basis. They get away with it because we like it. We don’t read the Constitution ourselves, or what is worse, don’t bother to understand it. We like to say it belongs to us, the “we the people” thing, and detest our various political representatives, yet when a maverick like Ron Paul tries to obey it, he is considered quaint, or a crank or an extremist.
So, what they say about Paul must be true, because the media said so.
The recent Ohio abortion vote shows that we need to stop worshiping government as the solution to our problems. On nearly all levels, governments are either completely corrupt, arguably anti-human or distrust their own citizenry. We really don’t know how that Ohio abortion vote went because it would be foolish for pro-lifers and conservatives to maintain that the 2020 election was stolen, which it obviously was, and think that the enemies of life and freedom would only do that once.
If you are waiting for the 2024 election to turn things around, how naïve is that?
So, with the country going to hell, we ought to be looking someplace else for the solutions to our problems. Where do we look?
It is time to get inside the “comfort zone” – not of our politicians – but of our pastors. And yes, our own comfort zones. Pastors have an invisible barrier that keeps them from expounding all the truths we find in the Bible. This is because they understand that if they disturb our comfort zone, we will walk away – just like many of the disciples did in the Gospel of John, chapter 6.
Whether we are Catholics or Protestants, pastors do not want to preach against divorce-and-remarriage, even though Jesus was pretty clear about that. It would get inside our comfort zone, you see. Many of us would walk. And for those who don’t, they would probably tell their pastors, “You shouldn’t say that. The church soon won’t have any money.”
Let that sink in.
And the pastors don’t want to talk about contraception either, because of the same thing, even though all denominations did so less than a hundred years ago. And, the married pastors probably contracept themselves. I personally knew a fiery evangelical pastor, dead-set against abortion, who got a vasectomy.
As Christians lament the destruction of the American family, and lament the outcome of the Ohio abortion vote, they have been divorcing, contracepting and even aborting at the same rate as the secular world.
Why would God give us a victory against surgical and late-term abortions while his alleged disciples are doing the very things that lead to it?
The problem is, most American Christians, let alone secular citizens, do not want to follow the example of self-denial, prayer, penance, sacrifice and martyrdom, because we worship government as the Great Problem Solver.
Catholics, Evangelicals, Orthodox and Protestants have been ignoring a simple truth which, just a century ago, we all agreed upon. The destruction of our culture has come through the destruction of marriage as a permanent union. We all study Jesus, the Word made flesh, and what he said in the Gospels is going to hurt.
Divorce-and-remarriage, which the Jews had actually institutionalized through Moses, is wrong. John the Baptist was executed for daring to say this to King Herod Antipas. The Pharisees thought they really had Jesus on this one, but he dared to make the correction. Christ Himself called divorce-and-remarriage “adultery.”
Most of us like to think of adultery within a more narrow definition, but not so Christ.
One of the key tools has been contraception.
The rejoinder given by objecting Christians has always been, “But contraception prevents abortion!” And, part of the trick in obtaining cultural acceptance of contraception has been that, with birth control, happier marriages and “wanted” children will be the result. Since this became acceptable around 1960, what has been the result? Do we have longer-lasting and happier families?
Dr. Judith Bury of Canada’s Brook Advisory Centre said, “There is overwhelming evidence that, contrary to what you might expect, the provision of contraception leads to an increase in the abortion rate.”
How so? Because with increased recreational sex, inside and outside of marriage, there will be contraceptive failure. And its logical solution will be abortion.
And from the children that are born, they discover, and later imitate, the devastation of family life: runaway dads, stepfathers, live-in boyfriends and, perhaps the biggest crush of all, a bewildering lack of permanency in human relationships. It leads to a warped view of marriage that can translate into homosexuality. It will almost certainly soon go even further, into polygamy, incest and bestiality.
To end this mess, we don’t need a president, a constitutional amendment or an act of Congress. Christians need to worship – not the Constitution – but instead the One, Triune God. Take the “narrow way,” reform our lives and prepare for the loving chastisement that we all so richly deserve.
For a loving God chastises his wayward children, and then welcomes them into his arms when they have repented.
It’s in the Bible.