Saturday, September 24, 2005

Blessed Is the Nation Whose God Is the Lord

The ACLU has been very successful at removing the Ten Commandments from public buildings. The argument they use is that the First Amendment says that states may not promote one religion over another. Since many conservatives accept that the First Amendment applies to the states, they are hard pressed to win in court.

An interesting story has appeared on WND. An "Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians" have voted to post the Ten Commandments where their governments meet. Although this is quite refeshing to see a government acknowledge God, some of their reasoning is a bit flawed.

They state:

"There is no First Amendment issue involved, and even if the American Civil Liberties Union wanted to make one, it can't. The U.S. Constitution does not apply to Cherokee, nor to any other Native American tribe for that matter..."


Well, I'd like to inform the Cherokee Indians as well as most conservatives in this country, there is no correct way to apply the First Amendment to states either. Therefore the ACLU can make up any argument they want.

The First Amendment was written to restrict the Federal government, not the states. The state of Massachusetts had a state church well into the 1830s. Therfore if the state of Utah decided to make the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints, the state church, Constitutionally, they may do so.

Although I commend these Cherokees to do what they are doing, they need to be consistent. The Councilwoman Angela Kephart said:

"We aren't saying you have to abide by the Ten Commandments," Kephart said, according to the Smoky Mountain News. "We are simply displaying God's Ten Commandments. That's what He expects from each and every individual. If you break that, it is between you and God. It is not between you and the tribal council; it is between you and God."


Although the above sounds nice. It is self contradictory and not the intention of the Ten Commandments. The ten commandments are to be the basis of Law. Therefore, to say that they are not saying people have to abide by the Ten Commandments, and then say that the Ten Commandments are between individuals and God, is to say that I can committ murder and it is just between me and God. How absurd is that thinking?

The Ten Commandments are meant for society and the basis for the laws of governments everywhere. Without acknowledging the Creator and His Laws, we only invite chaos. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, including the Nation of Cherokee Indians.

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