The Theory of the Independent State Legislature and Other Heresies

 

The Supreme Court of the United States is going to consider a case that argues for a legal theory called the Independent State Legislature. Similar to the Unitary Executive theory from the Dick Cheney days, it simply ignores the concept of the Separation of Powers, a property deeply embedded in the US Constitution. Rumor has it that the Trumpian Right is also interested in destroying the separation of church and state, another deeply embedded property of our Constitution. These properties are never absent from any function of our government.

The people advancing these ideas are simply ignoring the parts of the Constitution that they find inconvenient. In Christianity we call this heresy. And many of the same people are committing it with regard to their interpretation of the Bible as Christians. It is the same juvenile self-serving mental practice of focusing on a few scriptures, or in law, a few legal clauses, and declaring the holier-than-thou position of taking the Bible or the Constitution literally. Well, a Baptist pastor I had many years ago once preached, “People who take the Bible literally do not often seem to take it seriously.” Just so. #Jesus corroborates this when he told the Pharisees, “He that made the outside made the inside also.” Those people are avid about titheing down to the mint and cumin, but ignore the weightier matters of justice and mercy. They wash their hands but their hearts are full of corruption. Juvenile self-centeredness is not American Liberty. I’m looking at you, Don.

The government described by the Constitution, like the kingdom of God described by the Bible, can only be properly understood in a holistic way. On a given point of law, and on a given point of Christian Life, you must be sure to consider all the pertinent verses. Sometimes it’s complicated; sorry, Life is complicated. God is vastly greater than you or I can imagine, but there are ways of thoughtfully integrating what we know in order to best please him, which is the basic goal of Christian Life. The simplest one is to ask him. If you are a Christian, and not just passing for one to get by in your culture, then you must believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is alive, and that he is interested in pursuing a personal relationship with you. ‘Prayer’, in spite of the word’s root meaning of asking, is at least half devoted to listening to the Shepherd’s voice. The change in perspective this can give is literally life-changing.

I have been entwining church and state quite deliberately in this discussion because I was talking about a human thought process that affects both our civic life and our spiritual life; but let me be clear about church and state: the government of the United States is constituted as deliberately secular - similarly, the kingdom of God is not of this world and its goals are the farthest thing from domination. When Jesus was about to be arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, Peter pulled out a sword and struck off a guy’s ear in defense of the Lord. And what did Jesus say? He told him to put his sword away, didn’t they think that he could ask his father and get more than twelve legions of angels? See, God has never wanted to coerce anyone. Those right-wing radicals want to give (their idea of) Christianity the force of law in this country. It is destructive; it is doomed to fail; it is not pleasing to God.

The Future and Predestination

 "Unthinkable" by Brad Parks is was a very well written thriller with some terrific twists, and a raging philosophical argument throughout. It starts with a common ethical question: would you kill someone to save to the lives of many others? Of course you would. Well, would you kill your wife to save the lives of a billion strangers? Assuming you love your wife, this ratchets up the stakes to an "unthinkable" level, the makings of a great thriller novel. The discussion moves to something like "how can this be a real question?" Because the answer involves someone being able to see the future, it moves into the question of whether free will exists for individuals and the very nature of time. But this is not really a sci-fi piece. The central characters' love for each other drives them to keep questioning the quandary they are in, in spite of pretty convincing evidence, helping the reader do the same. Their humanity, in the best sense of the word, helps them overcome the plot of the bad guys, even if they don't solve the questions of Life, the Universe, and Everything. I don't think making a statement like that is a spoiler, since a major part of the thriller genre is that somehow, the good guys overcome the odds, right?

Now just for argument's sake, suppose that someone really could see into the future. But wait - this supposes that the Future is of a nature that it can be seen into. And if it is there, just another dimension like the spatial dimensions, then is everything predestined? I assert that the Future does NOT exist. It simply is not there to be seen by anyone. Including God Himself, who made the universe the way it is. So wait, hasn't God foretold the future? Yes, on a number of occasions (not including predicting what He Himself was going to do, which, as Jonah found out, can change). However, God sees every choice we make, every star that goes super-nova, every quark or string, depending on how He conceptualizes it. So He is in a good position to predict what will happen next. Because we humans do actually have free will, our choices have a material effect on how the future unfolds, at least on this planet. Remember what Jesus said in his example of how to pray? "May thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." This is strong evidence to suppose that on many occasions, His will is not being done on earth. It is the Christian's goal in life to have a relationship with the Living God and lovingly seek to do His will on earth. Admit it, we often fail in this endeavor, but we must persevere.

Returning to the idea then that someone really could see into the future, I accept that it could be a similar thing. Not just a logical prediction based on what someone knows about what's happening, but more like a gift of knowledge, God (or possibly another spirit being who is not confined to the Space-Time Continuum) telling someone about what He sees as going to happen - but which can be changed if God or someone else intervenes in the current situation. When God does it, we call it a miracle - if we actually notice. 

One last point: the whole idea that seeing something coming, for instance a bunch of people dying in some catastrophe, we humans would probably declare it to be bad, and to intervene to prevent it would be good. This is just one more example of Original Sin at work. We look on the outward appearance and decide is it good? or is it bad? A bunch of people dying, that must be bad, more bad than just one person dying, who may be causing the others' deaths. Ethics is all about Good vs Evil. Which is why it so easily becomes absurd. Jesus told them, "... those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you Nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."