The Cross and the Court
In challenging atheists who wish
destroy all religious symbols from public life, we might ask, “If you are truly
an atheist and don’t believe in any overarching power for good in our universe,
why does any religious symbol, meaningless to you, matter at all?”
Based
on Federalist Patriot No. 05-12
John 20:1-31
Edited by Jackson Snyder, March 26, 2005
Jackson
Snyder Bible Mt.
Soledad Cross Easter
and Paganism Reagan
Quote on Resurrection Litany
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ARITICLE:
“Can We Stop ‘We the People’ from becoming ‘We the Judiciary’?”
by Ramesh Ponnuru www.tothesource.org
(Searching relevant contemporary culture)
May 4, 2005
The U.S. Constitution turns its attention to
the judiciary only after outlining the powers and responsibilities of 
the executive
and legislative branches of government. Alexander Hamilton wrote that the
courts were “the least dangerous” branch of the government, since they could
neither order troops nor raise money. Yet it often seems as though America’s
judges are the most powerful decision makers in American politics.
The
Supreme Court tells us under what circumstances we may apply the death
penalty—if we may apply it at all. Abortion is a subject that has been at the
forefront of politics for a generation. But it is the justices of the Supreme
Court, not elected officials, who almost entirely set abortion policy.
At the other end of life, it is the justices
who have created a limited right to assisted suicide—and who will decide how
limited it will remain. The most innovative idea in education policy is school
choice. If the justices had not narrowly given it their approval, the
experiment in school choice would have ended before it began.
Federal judges are also involved in the war
on terrorism, which they are subjecting to a “rule of law” that looks, to the
untrained eye, like an ever-changing series of judicial edicts. State judges,
too, have a remarkable amount of power.
In several states, they have redefined
marriage as a unisex affair—and while voters have in most cases amended their
states’ constitutions to overturn the judges, some of those judges are likely
to succeed eventually. Given the power judges wield, it is hardly surprising
that presidential campaigns have, to some extent, become races for chief
judge-picker.
When critics say that the modern judiciary
has too much power, its defenders have a ready answer. The courts, they say,
are just enforcing the Constitution, as they have always done. The problem
isn’t the courts, they add, but the critics, who are threatening the
independent judiciary that the Founders gave us. Senator James Jeffords
recently explained why the critics should desist: “The first lesson we teach children
when they enter competitive sports is to respect the referee, even if we think
he might have made the wrong call. If our children can understand this, why
can’t our political leaders?”
But the modern courts have gone far beyond
their original role. The Supreme Court first suggested that it could set aside
unconstitutional laws back in 1803, when it decided Marbury v. Madison. In that
decision, the Court reasoned that Congress was asking it to exercise a power
that the Constitution did not give the judiciary. The Court concluded that it
could not execute an extra-constitutional power.
The modern variety of “judicial review” is
very different. Nowadays the Supreme Court often “interprets” the Constitution
with little regard for its text, history, or structure. Laws that violate these
“interpretations” are routinely nullified. Rather than declining
extra-constitutional powers, in other words, the courts are seizing such
powers. And the Court claims to be able to settle constitutional issues with finality.
Marbury did not assert such a broad claim, and the Court did not read Marbury
to assert it until the 1950s.
It is this claim to have the final say on
what the Constitution means that has led to troubling expansions of judicial
power. We now have a “referee” who makes up the rules of the game as he goes
along—including the rules that set forth the limits of his own power. A power
largely unchecked is likely to be a power abused. So it has been with the
Supreme Court. Its jurisprudence has floated further and further away from any
grounding in the Constitution.
The latest innovation has been to look to
foreign opinion as a guide to what American law should be. If the justices are
not bound by the understanding of the American public that ratified the
Constitution—and if nobody can overrule or challenge the justices—why not look
abroad for ideas?
We now have an entire legal culture that
celebrates freewheeling judicial creativity. What we now have, in other words,
is judicial rule. The courts may not be setting our foreign policy or our
traffic rules, but they claim a boundless and practically unchecked power to
make law.
Perhaps there are arguments for allowing a
legal elite to rule us in this way. Perhaps this elite, which really does have superior
intelligence to the average person, will give us more enlightened and just laws
than the people would devise for themselves. But the public never ratified a
Constitution that gave any elite such power—any more than the public ever
ratified abortion-on-demand and same-sex marriage.
Critics of the modern judiciary sometimes
quote Hamilton’s remark about the “least dangerous branch” ruefully, as though
to say that he had been proven wrong. But Hamilton was right. The judiciary is
not very dangerous on its own, however wrongheaded it may be, because it “has
no influence over the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength
or of the wealth of the society.” It can attain overweening power only with the
acquiescence of the other branches of government.
The
Resurrection:
John 20:1. It was very early on the first day of the week and still
dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been
moved away from the tomb 2. and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple,
the one whom Jesus loved. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,” she said,
“and we don’t know where they have put him.”
3. So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. 4. They ran together, but the other disciple,
running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; 5. he bent down and saw the
linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in.
6. Simon Peter, following him, also came up,
went into the tomb, saw the linen cloths lying on the ground 7. and also the
cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but
rolled up in a place by itself. 8. Then the other disciple who had reached the
tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. 9. Till this moment they had still not
understood the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
10. The disciples then went back home. 11. But Mary was standing outside near the
tomb, weeping. Then, as she wept, she stooped to look inside, 12. and saw two
angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the
other at the feet. 13. They said,
“Woman, why are you weeping?” “They have
taken my Master away,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14. As she said this she turned round and saw
Jesus standing there, though she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you
weeping? Who are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said,
“Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go
and remove him.”
16. Jesus said, “Mary!” She turned round
then and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbuni!”, which means “Master”. 17. Jesus
said to her, “Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your
Father, to my God and your God.” 18. So
Mary of Magdala told the disciples, “I have seen the Master,” and that he had
said these things to her.
19. In the evening of that same day, the
first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples
were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them,
“Peace be with you,” 20. and, after saying this, he showed them his hands and
his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Master, 21. and he
said to them again, “Peace be with you.
“As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.”
22. After saying this he breathed on them
and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23.
If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins,
they are retained.” 24. Thomas, called
the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25. So the other disciples said to him, “We
have seen the Master,” but he answered, “Unless I can see the holes that the
nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and
unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.”
26. Eight days later the disciples were in
the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came
in and stood among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27. Then he spoke to
Thomas, “Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put
it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe.” 28. Thomas replied, “My Master and my
Elohim!” 29. Jesus said to him: “You
believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
believe.”
30. There were many other signs that Jesus worked in the sight of the
disciples, but they are not recorded in this book. 31. These are recorded so that you may
believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing this you
may have life through his name.
The
Cross: 1 Corinthians 1:17. For Christ did not send me to baptize but to
preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be
emptied of its power. 18. For the word of the cross is folly to those
who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19.
For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the
cleverness of the clever I will thwart.”
20. Where is the wise man? Where
is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world?
21.
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through
wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who
believe. 22. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
23. but we preach Christ crucified, a
stumbling block to Jews and folly to the rest, 24. but to those who are called, both Jews and the
rest, the Christ of the Cross is the power of God and the wisdom of
God. 25.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is
stronger than men.
26. For
consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly
standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; 27.
but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose
what is weak in the world to shame the strong,
28. God chose what is low and
despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things
that are, 29. so that no human being might boast in the
presence of God.
The
Cross
If we get down to its basic definition, the
Cross we venerate was, in its origin, an implement of torture and death, and
those crucified upon it were numbered among the most notorious and dangerous of
criminals. Our Savior was impaled on
just such an implement, and he was dangerous, as he had the power to
overthrow the entire governmental structures of the world empires of his
day. In fact, “he could have called ten
thousand angels; but he died alone for you and me.”
Now, through media, we may experience
something of the torture that the cross brought this man of peace and justice
whom we worship. However, the cross as a
symbol, an empty cross at that, brings to our minds not the great injustice
done by the courts of his day, nor his wretched suffering for the sake of the
world, but Jesus’ defeat over death and his rising back to life from it. The cross was emptied of its terror. In that object of torture and shame, we now
find hope of new life, perfection, glorification and eternal habitation. Though this symbol be a stumbling block and
offense for many, we’ve come to cherish the old rugged cross, before
which “our trophies at last we’ll lay down.”
We believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life to come. That is our credo. The cross has itself risen from being a
symbol of death to life, and a constant reminder that those whom we’ve lost to
death, we’ll regain in resurrection.
A Memorial
Messiah’s Resurrection, celebrated as the
dormant season of winter yields to new life, reinforces our belief that life
can indeed arise miraculously from the hard dirt of death. This thought is appropriate for this the
world calls Easter, as our protectors and guardians are arrayed on the
foreign and domestic fields of battle to stand against those who’d do us
harm. We have been at war; yet we see
hopeful signs. The liberated are rising
courageously, determined now to learn self-government and self-defense. The actions of our people have served to
light the fuse of freedom for much of the vast lands spoken of in our
Bibles. And we discover that it was for
this cause that Jesus came – to set the captives free.
We acknowledge the sacrifices of our
guardians who put themselves at risk every day.
When they lay down their lives in defense of our liberties, we say
they’ve given the ultimate sacrifice – and we honor them with a cross
to guard their graves until those graves are opened and their bodies are freed
from death’s grip at the general resurrection.
A memorial to brave men and women stands on
a hill far away, overlooking San Diego, where a 43-foot cross overshadows a
170-acre parcel of land dedicated to public use in 1916 as “Mt. Soledad Natural
Park.” The Mt. Soledad Memorial
Association was formed in 1952 with this mission: “To
enhance and preserve the Mt. Soledad Veterans’ Memorial honoring those veterans
who have served our country during times of conflict and to educate the general
public about service to our country and the sacrifices that veterans make to
preserve the freedoms we enjoy as Americans.”
The old rugged redwood cross that first
stood at this site was replaced by wood and stucco in 1934, which a windstorm
took down in 1952. The present Memorial Cross atop Mt. Soledad dates to April
18, 1954, when the monument was rededicated to World War I, World War II and Korean
War veterans during an Easter Sunday ceremony.
Another storm of sorts is now
threatening to again blow down the Mt. Soledad cross; a political squall
led by atheist Philip Paulson and his lawyers.
The Political
Insanity of the Memorial
Paulson’s lawsuits on behalf of atheists
have traveled through the courts for a decade and a half. Rebuffed by both courts and citizens – who’ve
voted overwhelmingly to maintain the Mt. Soledad Memorial intact –
Paulson fought on. He finally found
success when the notorious 9th U.S. Circuit Court reversed an earlier
judgment that upheld the sale of the memorial to the Mt. Soledad Memorial
Association. So the memorial was taken
from those that would preserve it by the courts, and the property was returned
to city ownership. On November 20,
2004, Congress passed a bill (HR 4818 [P.L. 108-447]) authorizing the government
to acquire the memorial. The San Diego
City Council voted to give the memorial to the government three weeks ago
– so now, by the judgment of the court, the government must, by someone’s law, cut
down the Cross if it wants to preserve the memorial’s significance.
However, the citizens of San Diego, in
response to the regretful act of their City Council, are circulating a petition
requesting that the March 8th decision be either repealed or put to a
public vote. More than 30,000 signatures are required within the
month.
Atheism a Religion
In challenging atheists who want to destroy all
religious symbols from public view, we might ask, “If you are truly an atheist
and don’t believe in any overarching power for good in our universe, why does any
religious symbol, meaningless to you, matter at all?”
And to the courts that take such cases
seriously, we might ask, “On what constitutional basis do atheists have
standing to sue? Are atheists granted
standing under the view that atheism is a religious faith constitutionally
guaranteed free-exercise rights? If so,
then what ‘free exercise’ of atheism is hindered by permitting those holding
other faiths to symbolize their beliefs freely in public? What is it about the symbols of others’ faith
that violate that of you atheists?” Are
atheists so weak-minded that even being nearby or merely spying the symbols of
others’ faiths causes them to lose theirs?
If atheists have standing because atheism is
a religion, then why is their demand that the only officially permissible
public religion not banned is atheism?
Shall atheism be the government’s official religion? Godlessness is either a religious faith or it
isn’t. But it must be a religion, for
the only way atheists can lawfully sue on the grounds of religious liberty
is if atheism is a religion. And
it is – so the symbols and leaders of atheism must be as suspect as those of
other faiths.
Alas, the endless court cases brought by
atheists are certainly a characteristic of lawlessness, godlessness and a
godless religion.
Kangaroo Court
Indeed, the scourge of kangaroo court cases
is one particularly appropriate lesson learned by the earliest Christians
commemorating Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Jesus was brought before three courts, none
of which had legitimate cause, jurisdiction or quorum to try him, much less
convict him and sentence him to capital punishment. You’ll remember, he was at prayer in the
Garden of Gethsemane before he was hauled in to see a few biased members of the
Jewish council at night, without proper procedures, even under their own law.
Jesus was then transferred into judicial
custody of the Roman rulers under the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate. He was sent on to King Herod, as Jesus was a
legal resident of Galilee, and Herod was the ruler of that province. None of these courts found him guilty
under their proper laws. Even when
Jesus was returned to the Roman governor, Pilate “took water and washed his
hands before the multitude, saying, ‘I am innocent of the blood of this just
man.’” And yet, summarily, Jesus was
nailed to a cross and crucified among criminals.
Historical
Paganism
Historically, recognition of Messiah’s
Resurrection, as with Messiah’s birth, has coincided with various heathen
rituals. Scholars attribute the name
“Easter” to that of “Eostra,” the German fertility goddess. Eostra is honored still at heathen festivals
at this time - today. Eostra is one of
many similar names of heathen goddesses, with the form Ishtar associated
with the region around Babylon and mentioned in the Bible as Ashtaroth. Traditions associated with the ancient
worship of Ishtar include the Ishtar rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and Ishtar
eggs, the product of fertility, painted with the bright colors of spring. However, the Christian holiday builds
upon the biblical feast of Passover, celebrating the deliverance of the
Israelites from bondage in Egypt. It has
nothing to do with heathen rites, especially those connected with fertility or
the pagan goddess Eostra.
Pope Victor I (c. 189 - 98) decreed Eostra
(Easter) a Sunday holiday to replace Passover, and in 325 the Council of Nicaea
set Easter’s date in relation to the moon. The calendar of Pope Gregory
corrected the date in 1582, making Easter the first Sunday after the full moon
following the vernal equinox, falling between March 22nd and April
25th, further polluting the memorial day of resurrection.
In our time, there is only a small minority
that do not celebrate the pagan practices of Eostra on Resurrection Day,
for some see these as specifically forbidden by the first and second
commandments. Secularists and atheists
are trying very hard to replace the meaning of Resurrection Sunday with the hollow
commercialism associated with ancient heathen rituals, to the
detriment of our liberty and the dissolution of true faith. And, unfortunately, most Christians have
taken the bait, hook, line and sinker.
Our Founding Fathers understood that
American liberty is only secure in the context of our Judaic heritage. Among many others, John Adams, our second
president, observed,
“Statesmen...may plan
and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can
establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. ... Our
Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly
inadequate to the government of any other.”
Nevertheless,
our country’s elite culture and court system grow increasingly hostile to
faith, religion and morality, as the decades-long fight over the Mt. Soledad
Memorial Cross attests.
Essential Nature
The scriptural admonition is that we always
consider the essential nature of each thing. What is the essential nature of salt? Jesus asked and answered, “...if the salt
loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoning?
It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by
men” (Matthew 5:13). Earlier, King David asked
about the essential nature of faith and government; he said, “If the
foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do” (Psalm
11:3)? We may ask similar questions today, “If the
courts have become unjust through unjust judges, how shall right ever be
restored? If the church has become
de-justified by pagan rituals, how shall righteousness ever be restored?”
The Mt. Soledad Memorial has stood as a
tribute to the ultimate sacrifice and to HIS Ultimate Sacrifice - always
both. The memorial Cross shelters
plaques honoring veterans of many faiths.
Its dedication on Resurrection Sunday 1954 demonstrates that Christians
revere the Cross not as the symbol of death as it was meant, but as a beloved
symbol celebrating belief in eternal life through Yahweh’s foundational
grace. This is the essential nature
of our faith. But if we as a nation
continue to deny ever-greater religious liberties, how can we claim Yahweh’s
blessings on our land and His continued involvement against those who wish to
vilify and kill us all?
My friends, seek out true worship and deny
the false god that which belongs to the true.
In Jesus’ name! “Come out of her,
my people,” says Yahweh. “Come out of
Mystery Babylon!” Join those in the
light of true worship: the light that becomes eternal life for those who
persevere in righteousness.
Reagan’s
Resurrection
I’d like to finish with a quotation from
our fortieth president in regards to our Savior, his life, and this land. Ronald Reagan said,
“I
still can’t help wondering how we can explain away what to me is the greatest
miracle of all and which is recorded in history. No one denies there was such a
man [as Jesus], that he lived and that he was put to death by crucifixion.
[But] Where...is the miracle I spoke of?
Well consider this and let your imagination translate the story into our
own time - possibly to your own hometown.
A young man whose father is a carpenter
grows up working in his father’s shop. One day he puts down his tools and walks
out of his father’s shop. He starts preaching on street corners and in the
nearby countryside, walking from place to place, preaching all the while, even
though he is not an ordained minister. He never gets farther than an area
perhaps 100 miles wide at the most. He does this for three years. Then he is
arrested, tried and convicted. There is no court of appeal, so he is executed
at age 33 along with two common thieves. Those in charge of his execution roll
dice to see who gets his clothing - the only possessions he has. His family
cannot afford a burial place for him so he is interred in a borrowed tomb.
End of story? No, this uneducated, property-less young man
has, for 2,000 years, had a greater effect on the world than all the rulers,
kings, emperors; all the conquerors, generals and admirals, all the scholars,
scientists and philosophers who have ever lived - all of them put together. How
do we explain that - unless He really was what He said He was?”
Let’s remember all those on this
Resurrection Sunday who, like our Savior, are putting their lives, their
reputations, and their convictions on the cross for the sake of the Son’s
truth, justice, liberty, and unworldly way to peace. Amen.
Litany
Prayer:
Father in Heaven, of power and majesty:
On that blessed Sabbath you
raised Jesus your son
and delivered him and us from death’s
destruction.
We praise you on this bright
day for all your gifts of new life.
Especially we thank you
for all victories over sin and evil in our
lives . . .
for loyalty and love of friends and family .
. .
for the newborn, the newly baptized,
and those now in your eternal home . . .
for the renewal of nature . . .
for the continuing witness to the Messiah by
the congregation . . .
Creator of eternity:
You are present with us because
of Messiah’s rising from the dead,
and you persist in lifting us to new life in
him.
We bring to you our prayers for
this world in need of resurrection.
Especially we pray
for those who have done and are doing battle
against evil . . .
for all nations and peoples in strife . . .
for the poor and impoverished, at home and
abroad . . .
for those we know in particular circumstances
of distress . . .
for the diseased and the dying . . .
for all who follow the risen Messiah . . . ;
through the same Jesus, the
Messiah and our Master. Amen.
(Adapted
from Presbyterian Daily Prayer)