It's a script only the twisted mind of the late, great Rod Serling could've conjured up.
In a true Twilight Zone moment, it's not a hardcore Blue State on one of the liberal coasts that becomes the primary exporter of sodomy marriage to the land of the free and the home of the brave, but rather a salt of the earth agricultural state from Middle America that traditionally has been known for its American Gothic values.
The tragic turn of events in my home state of Iowa as of late has me feeling introspective, wondering how things could've gone so terribly wrong. Given our state's non-residency requirement for marriage, which means what's happening in Iowa is going to impact the rest of America since we're poised to become the sodomy marriage sanctuary, so many concerned citizens from all over the country have contacted me in recent days wondering what we should do now and what will happen next.
I'm certainly not shy about giving my opinion, but I also believe that before real change can take place a really honest assessment of how you got here in the first place is needed. That's why I have a few questions of my own first.
Questions like:
- Why has nearly every Christian or conservative organization in America sent out a press release in the last week saying the Iowa Supreme Court "struck down traditional marriage" or "the Iowa Supreme Court legalized" homosexual marriage? Whoever controls the language controls the debate, and if the right is going to accept the left's premise from the outset that courts make law, then there is no hope for reviving the republic.
- How can homosexual marriage be legal in Iowa when the Legislature is the only constitutionally prescribed body of government authorized to make laws, and so far it has not amended its current statute one iota?
- Doesn't our government begin with the words "we the people" and not "this the court"?
- Did our founders really pledge their lives, fortunes and sacred honors so that in the end elections and the will of the people could be effectively nullified by courts who believe they determine their own jurisdiction? (For instance, Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 78 said, "The Judiciary possesses neither the power of the purse nor the sword and is, by its very design, intended to be the weakest of the three branches.")
- How much longer must we who claim to believe in the Bible/natural law, constitutional rule of law and the separation of powers continue to ensnare ourselves in the current loss-leader religious-right strategy of legal positivism? Almost 60 percent of the Federal Judiciary – including seven of the nine current Supreme Court justices – are Republican appointees, and several Republican appointees on the Iowa Supreme Court obviously agreed with the unanimous decision. Therefore, given the mounting evidence of immoral and unconstitutional decisions like this, isn't it time to give up the toxic lie that "courts make law," and therefore if we just have "conservative" of "strict constructionist" judges making decisions that should be made in legislatures accountable to the people we'll be OK? How many more times must the system prove that nearly our entire judiciary, no matter which political party appointed them, has been worked over by social Darwinism before we stop tilting at windmills?
- Why would any Christian give any of his or her time, talent and treasure – which comes only from a sovereign God and is only theirs to steward until the Master returns – to any compromised ministry or para-church organization and still expect their offerings to be blessed? For instance, our churches across denominational lines utterly refuse to hold the civic leaders in their pews accountable to the Word of God. And that's even the ones that take orthodoxy seriously, which is a decreasing number these days. Another example would be the long line of so-called Christian conservative para-church organizations that have sadly ceased being Christ-centered and instead become wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Republican Party, and have lost their prophetic witness as a result. They do apologia for RINOs, not Jesus Christ. If you're helping to enable such lukewarm tripe, or participating in it yourself, why are you surprised you're being trampled underfoot? Isn't that what's supposed to happen when the salt has lost its flavor?
- Would the public schools have successfully spent a generation indoctrinating our children with pro-homosexual propaganda if Christians would have refused to participate with their students, parents and teachers?
- How can we expect to stop sodomy marriage in Iowa when many of the same leaders now trying to stop it were the same ones who told us we should elect the nation's first sodomy-marriage governor president of the United States?
- Why should the culture at-large care what the church has to say about the sanctity of marriage when we allow divorced politicians to bastardize the sacrament, no longer contest far more destructive laws to the family like no-fault divorce, nor confront the cohabitation in our pews?
- Don't Christians in politics or politicians who swore an oath to protect and uphold our constitutions have a moral duty to practice civil disobedience and not enforce such illegal, unconstitutional and immoral court decisions?
- Shouldn't Christians obey God and not man?
- From now on, why not have our legislatures send the laws they pass to the courts before they send them to the executive for his signature? That way, we can find out up front if the esteemed judges approve and save ourselves millions of dollars in attorney fees and years of court challenges. If we're going to be "the government by judicial fiat" let's at least pinch our pennies and make it more efficient.
It's my opinion we can't move on and fight the good fight without first answering these questions, because the answers to these questions are the reasons we're confronted with this battle in the first place.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
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Steve Deace is the host of "Deace in the Afternoon" on 1040-WHO in Des Moines, the legendary frequency in the first in the nation caucus state where Ronald Reagan was once sports director. His show airs 4-7 p.m. central time and can be heard online at www.whoradio.com.