Did you know that there’s a law that transcends and “outranks” the US Constitution? Did you that this “super” law is the foundation of all law, and that only certain people with the correct religious belief are entitled to de-legitimize lawmaking by elected officials in light of that “super law”?
Well, it’s true…according to the evangelical right and Michele Bachmann. You and tens of millions of American citizens have been living in a fool’s paradise, not understanding that the Bible is the ultimate “law of the land.” Anything that deviates from the current conservative evangelical understanding of the Bible is a kind of false perversion of the law. At any moment, a evangelical activist with a significant popular following can “de-legitimize” existing law by arguing that it conflicts with his understanding of Scripture.
That hasn’t been the law in the United States since its inception–but to millions of Americans, that’s the proper way to interpret the law today. Political commentator Sarah Posner points out that modern political reality:
Rushdoony and Titus both read the secular language of the Constitution in the context of the invocation of “the Creator” in the Declaration of Independence: “Inalienable rights are endowed by the Creator.” These rights, both Rushdoony and Titus contend, are not granted by either document, only recognized in them; these rights exist only because they were granted by God.
That “endowed by the Creator” argument has been made repeatedly by Republican politicians in speeches lately, including Mike Huckabee, Michele Bachmann, and Newt Gingrich. That’s the new “values voters” rhetoric: government is a tyrant, disobedient to God. Sure, all the anti-gay, anti-abortion, and anti-secularism stuff is packed in there. But at its core — and at its dangerous intersection with the tea party — the new mantra is fundamentally about subverting the “tyrannical” federal government.
You don’t know who “Rushdoony and Titus” are, and neither do millions of American conservative evangelicals. But their interpretation of both the Bible and American history is the foundation of a new wave in American politics that invalidates core beliefs (beliefs going back more than two hundred years) about the foundations of American law.
If those new beliefs are right, then American law is wrong: all of it, to the extent that it conflicts with Biblical law.
“Titus” is Herb Titus; you can read about him here…
Mr. Titus was a founding dean of the Regent University Law School, which Michele Bachmann has listed as her alma mater.
“Rushdoony” is Rousas John Rushdoony. You can read about him, here…
If you think that these men and their beliefs must be unimportant because you’ve never heard of them–please reconsider. Their beliefs about the “true” foundations of the “real” law are now at the core of politicized conservative evangelical activism (even though most American evangelicals have never heard their names, either.)
You will hear a lot about the tea party and the religious right and Michele Bachmann and similar politicians in the years to come. But you won’t understand them unless you understand that what they believe. They believe that the laws that you and I believe in (the law made by legislatures and courts, the law enforced by the executive branch) is inferior to the law of the Bible, as understood by self-appointed spokesmen for conservative evangelical Christians.
That development has become increasingly important in the Republican Party–and thus in American politics. You are not going to understand what is going on, right now, unless you understand that. You are not going to understand why gun rights and homophobia and economic issues and the tea party and fear of an “apocalyptic” federal government are all tied to together, in the mind of millions of conservative voters…if you don’t understand this interpretation of the Bible.
Here’s the link to the Posner piece…