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Jewish World Review April 8, 2005 / 28 Adar II, 5765 Things aren't as bad as they seem but not as good as it looks By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
R.C. Sproul, the prominent Protestant pastor and theologian, thinks the
Terri Schiavo case marks a huge, perhaps irreversible moral decline:
"Many years ago, Harold Lindsell described America's culture after the
revolution of the 60s as 'neo-pagan culture.' I think now what Terri
Schiavo's death marks is the transition to a neo-barbarian culture," Sproul
said.
Democrats (and more than a few Republicans) think the GOP stepped in it by
intervening in the Schiavo case. They cite polls which indicated between
two thirds and three quarters of Americans disapproved of the bill Congress
passed to permit the federal courts to take a second look at the facts in
the case of the brain damaged Florida woman.
I think both those who think America is going to Hell in a handbasket and
those who think Democrats will benefit from the Schiavo affair are mistaken.
America has far more to be proud of than any other nation. But we've had a
lot to be ashamed of, too. Slavery was legal until 1865, segregation until
1964. Our treatment of the Indians was always unfair, and often genocidal.
Abortion and euthanasia are moral abominations. But are they worse than
slavery, or massacres of Indian women and children?
Polls by ABC and Gallup indicated a large majority of Americans thought
Terri Schiavo should be "allowed to die." But the poll questions asserted
Terri was in a permanent vegetative state, and implied she was on artificial
life support, such as a ventilator or a dialysis machine.
John Zogby took a more recent poll. He asked questions which more
accurately reflected the facts. Among them was: "If a disabled person is not
terminally ill, not in a coma, and not being kept alive on life support, and
they have no written directive, should or should they not be denied food and
water?" A whopping 79 percent said she should not be denied food and water.
Only 9 percent said yes. I suspect our elites won't fare well when they
stand before the Almighty, but ordinary Americans are about as moral as
we've ever been.
The fallout from the Schiavo affair has made Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist (R-Tenn) skittish about changing Senate rules to put an end to
Democrat filibusters against President Bush's judicial nominees.
Conservatives warn of "judicial tyranny" if the rules aren't changed.
Liberals fret about "theocracy" if they are. Both sides imply that America
is at a crossroads unprecedented in our history.
But we've been at this crossroads often before. Most of the great events in
our history have followed religious revivals.
The Great Awakening, triggered by preachers Jonathan Edwards, Gilbert
Tennant and (especially) George Whitefield likely provided the spark that
ignited the American Revolution. Many historians "argue that the First
Great Awakening was a sort of dress rehearsal for the American Revolution —
that participating in a religious upheaval primed an entire generation of
colonials to support a political revolution," said University of Delaware
history professor Christine Heyrman.
A second Awakening led to the antislavery movement, the formation of the
Republican party, and the Civil War. A third religious revival spawned the
Progressive movement.
Noting the explosive growth of the mega-churches in the suburbs, University
of Chicago economic historian Robert William Fogel thinks we're in the midst
of a fourth Great Awakening. As a liberal, he's concerned about it. He'd
like the energy being poured into spiritual renewal to be applied to more
secular concerns.
Judicial imperialism has long been the last refuge of a political
establishment that is on its way out. Judicial review is nowhere mentioned
in the Constitution. It was invented by Chief Justice John Marshall, an
arch-Federalist, to handcuff President Thomas Jefferson, who had thrashed
the Federalists at the polls.
As more Territories entered the Union as free states, the South lost its
grip on Congress. It tried to preserve through diktats from the Supreme
Court what slavery was losing in elections.
FDR trounced the Republicans in 1932. But conservatives on the Court
hampered him by invalidating New Deal legislation on specious grounds.
We're headed for another titanic battle between a religious populace and a
secular elite, between the peoples' elected representatives and the courts.
What is past isn't necessarily prologue, but it is comforting to note who
won in the earlier confrontations.
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© 2005, Jack Kelly |
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