Garden of Eden: First in the Nation Primary

Mitt Romney gave a speech on Thursday about religion. He discussed the importance of religion in American life, but he didn't discuss his Mormon faith.

He wants us to know that he's a person of faith, but he doesn't want to tell us if he believes the Garden of Eden was in Missouri.

Mike Huckabee told reporters Thursday that it's healthy for people to discuss religion in the public square, but he refused to answer specific questions about his beliefs.

He wants us to know that he's a Baptist minister, but he doesn't want to tell us if he thinks women should be excluded from serving in a church's pastoral leadership, or whether it is appropriate to teach creationism in public schools.

It's a dicey business, courting the evangelical Christian vote. Last month, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher lost his re-election bid despite a last-minute order to display the Ten Commandments in the state Capitol, or maybe because of it.

You can blame the U.S. Supreme Court for all of this. Evangelical Christians might never have coalesced into a political force if the justices hadn't invented the idea that the First Amendment applies to state governments the same way it applies to the federal government. If not for those rulings incorporating the Bill of Rights into the Fourteenth Amendment, which began in 1925 and continue to the present day, there would never have been any federal court rulings taking prayer out of the public schools, or banning religious displays at public courthouses, or -- here's the big one -- telling the states that they no longer have the power to ban abortion.

People who agreed with those decisions didn't mind that the justices stretched the interpretation of the Constitution. But other people were incensed that the longstanding powers of their state governments, guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment, were usurped by the U.S. Supreme Court.

That's why for roughly thirty years now Americans have been fighting like pit bulls over nominations to the federal bench. Religious conservatives stand ready to deliver money and votes to a presidential candidate who shares their religious views and will appoint judges who see things their way.

Hence, the Garden of Eden primary.

Happy?

No?

Read "How the First Amendment Came to Protect Topless Dancing" and find out what to do about it.


Copyright 2007


Editor's note: "How the First Amendment Came to Protect Topless Dancing" is a lengthy and carefully documented essay (because if you're going to say the Supreme Court has been wrong for eighty years, you had better have your ducks in a row). Click here for a much shorter version. You might also be interested in reading "A Retirement Plan for Sandra Day O'Connor", "Cornered: The Supreme Court's Ten Commandments Problem," and "The Cat, the Bag, and Justice Scalia."

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