Evangelicals want to control judiciary

By Cynthia Hall Clements, The Lufkin Daily News
Sunday, April 17, 2005

The evangelical elite in this country seems to have taken the admonition from the book of Proverbs, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” a bit too personally.
In fact, they seem to think that they, and only they, impart godly knowledge to the rest of us — fellow believers, agnostics, and atheists alike — who refused to be co-opted into their strict world view and for that reason alone, we should fear them. They have the ear of the Almighty in Heaven, and they are His voice here on earth, or so they would want us to believe.
Some evangelicals wave the banner of Jesus Christ, chant His words over their subversive political tactics, and demand God's blessings on their politics. They exploit faith to justify their oppressive political agenda, and in the process stifle religious freedoms and trample on civil liberties in this country. Somehow I do not think that the familiar hymn, the call-to-action of the Christian faith, “Onward Christian Soldiers,” means that true believers are to wage war on the culture in the political arena through the government.
Mark Levin's book, “Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America,” would be easy to reject as yet another tirade in the battle against the alleged spiritual enemy of “judicial activism.”
Levin, in rank-and-file goosestep with other religious conservatives, condemns liberal judges run-amuck for destroying all things good and moral in this country. Terri Schiavo is dead, and “abortion on demand” is still legal. The courts are clearing the way for homosexuals to marry, but the Supreme Court recently ruled it unconstitutional to execute minors. Immigration, socialism, moral relativism, a whole host of other “-isms,” and even affirmative action make the list of the top 10 sins of Supreme Court justices on Levin's tablets.
It is past time, centuries past, according to Levin, to unseat Supreme Court justices and other federal judges, especially those who refuse to kneel at the altar of religious extremism, carefully cloaked as “Christianity.” Force them to repent of their sins, all under the guise of demonstrating Christ's love, of course. Levin questions the “high moral authority” that our country confers upon the Supreme Court.
Instituting term limits, amending the U.S. Constitution to erode the power of the judiciary, and conferring on Congress a “supermajority” two-thirds veto over all Supreme Court decisions are among Levin's suggestions to make the courts accountable to the whim and will of the majority. On James Dobson's radio program, Levin also railed against judicial nominations being “obstructed” by a “small cabal of radical left-wing Senators.” Strip them of their judicial independence, and the courts may bow to the latest public opinion poll.
It is not “mobarchy” or tyranny of the majority, Levin reassures his readers. Sure, I say. Works fine as long as you are in the majority, but wait and see what happens when you are in the minority. The view is not the same from the bleacher seats.
Levin states in his book about the High Court, “They've announced that morality alone is an insufficient basis for legislation.” Here is the really important question Levin fails to ask, “Whose definition of ‘morality?'” The answer to this question shows the hypocrisy of Levin and other right-wingers. After all, if these evangelicals approved of the decisions of the Supreme Court and other federal judges, “judicial activism” would be a friend not a foe, a means to the end of changing the culture.
But here is one nagging fact curiously de-emphasized in Levin's book. Republican presidents appointed seven out of the nine sitting Supreme Court justices. As President, Bill Clinton only appointed two justices — Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer — during his first term in office. What more does the religious right want? It would appear total control — ex post facto — over High Court decisions with which they disagree.
Levin's book would be easy to dismiss, even though it is currently on the New York Times bestseller list, except for James Dobson's, of Focus on the Family fame, endorsement of and commentary on it. Dobson's statement on his April 11 radio broadcast, comparing the Supreme Court justices to the Ku Klux Klan, would be farcical if it were not so frightening.
“I heard a minister the other day talking about the great injustice and evil of the men in white robes, the Ku Klux Klan, that roamed the country in the South, and they did great wrong to civil rights and to morality. And now we have black-robed men, and that's what you're talking about,” Dobson said in his conversation with Levin.
With a listening audience of as many as 7 million for his radio program, Dobson is an obviously power player in the evangelical movement in this country. As such, he has the responsibility to use the power of the pulpit of his para-church organization judiciously instead of resorting to gratuitous hate speech. People who tuned in to Dobson's program for Biblical advice on marriage and parenting last week instead heard his denunciation of the “unelected, unaccountable, arrogant judges” on the Supreme Court. Dobson's influence and impact make his statements so frightening.
Perhaps a better name for Levin's book would have been, “Men in Pulpits: How the Evangelical Elite is Destroying Faith."
My only fear is now that by debunking the myths of Levin, Dobson and others in this space, I have given credibility to their cause. It has none.
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