The Election: Focusing on the Supreme Court

I received an email a few days ago, from Focus on the Family that I thought important enough to post. We all know about the Supreme Court appointment that was filled by President Obama. It is quite likely that more will follow in the next few years. The Supreme Court has been almost evenly split, only slightly weighing in as more conservative constitutionalists. That could all change with a single court appointment. 

If you do not recognize the seriousness of this, reflect on just one court decision that was made while Bill Clinton was in office. It was during the time when the Boy Scouts were coming under increasing fire for their laws which prohibit homosexuals from being leaders in their program. The Boy Scouts of America is a private organization, not a public institution. That is important here. There was a case that went all the way to the Supreme court that could have had dire implications on all private organizations throughout the country, forcing them to admit homosexuals into leadership positions, regardless of their fundamental and religious beliefs on the matter. Thankfully, the court sided with the Boy Scouts in a 5 to 4 decision. The constitution hung by a thread.

Now on to the report from Focus on the Family:

Four members of the U.S. Supreme Court are at least 74 years old, making it very likely that the next president will make two or even three appointments to the Court in the coming four to eight years. Right now, the general balance of the court is more conservative than liberal on many of the biblical issues we care about. That composition could certainly shift leftward with the appointment of justices whose judicial philosophy leans toward creating law rather than interpreting the U.S. Constitution.

So the question is, since Romney and Obama have more similarities than we would like to think about, does your vote really matter? I think it does. Even though the Supreme Court really upset me in its recent decision to reject an appeal by two university, student led, religious groups who wanted to limit their voting membership to those who shared the same beliefs and values. Nevertheless, I think that if we allow extreme liberals such as Obama, to have another four years to rework the court, it would be to our own peril. Yes, our religious freedom is at stake. And if you have any doubt, I recommend reading The Criminalization of Christianity by Janet Folger.

Romney vs. Obama: The Religious Debate

Although I do not decide who to vote for purely because of a candidate's religious beliefs, I wanted to chime in on the subject. Yes, Romney is a Mormon and they do have some very peculiar religious beliefs which at one time incorporated racism, but only as a sub-text. They definitely do not hold traditional orthodox Christian beliefs.

Obama, on the other hand is much more difficult to pin down. Sometimes he has been caught embracing Islamic teachings, while at the same time reportedly claiming to be a Christian. Even at that, his Christian heritage is that of Black Liberation Theology which is rooted in racism and closely associated with that of the Nation of Islam. It is no more Biblically centered than Mormonism. Practically speaking, however, Obama functions as a pure secularist on the public level. What is secularism but the attempt to govern and make public decisions completely devoid of any religious beliefs and "sacred" books (which is entirely impossible, and I might add, a bit self-contradictory--it is impossible to be value free and neutral as the secularists try to argue).

At any rate, one thing is certain, to call Obama an orthodox, Bible thumping, traditional Christian who identifies himself with the apostle's creed, is just plain wrong. The fact is, neither Romney nor Obama are Christians in the traditional sense. Both candidates have been severely criticized not only by the opposition, but even by their own political allies for not maintaining their supposed religious convictions. Take Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, for example. During a sermon he publicly rebuked President Obama for his endorsement of legalizing same sex marriage. This is regardless of the fact that the two have a history of working together, at the Million Man March, for example.

For more insights as to Obama's connection to Islam, see Conservapedia's article. For the racist and cultic rhetoric of the Nation of Islam, straight from “A Black Theology of Liberation” by James H. Cone (1970), you can check it out here. 

Meanwhile, here's an interesting chart I found that compares Jewish Orthodoxy with Conservative Mormonism that is friendly to both.

This chart compares Orthodox Christianity with Mormonism (see here for more):