LANDMARK CASE FACES THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Pastor Jim Sanderbeck
Wednesday, December 1, 2021
Unfortunately and starting today, Wednesday, December 1, 2021, most of the United States citizenry are not even aware that the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) is hearing an extremely vital case,. This case is landmark in that the current SCOTUS rulings on abortion in this country have been foundational to the separation and disunity that exists between conservatives (especially Christian believers) and the liberal communities of US society. This case, Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, before the Supreme Court, could negate all or most all of the Roe v Wade decision of 1973. You can read a very comprehensive article written by SCOTUSblog at this link: https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/11/roe-v-wade-hangs-in-balance-as-reshaped-court-prepares-to-hear-biggest-abortion-case-in-decades/
Many of us who are of the conservative Christian faith believe that the downward spiral of social behaviors and the waning social emphasis on Christian expression (both religious and social) in the US began in the early 1960’s. We believe the center of the waning Christian influence came about when non-Christian activists who opposed prayer in public schools, got a favorable audience with SCOTUS. The main voice of the movement was a woman by the name of Madalyn Murray O’Hair. She was the very visible and catalytic voice who supported atheism and the separation of church and state. The U.S. Supreme Court, legislating from the bench, banned school-sponsored prayer in public schools in a 1962 decision, saying that it violated the First Amendment. This battle is still an oppositional and adversarial condition between the liberal American community and conservative Christian believers. The school prayer issue, along with a liberal SCOTUS trend since, certainly has at least contributed to the current religious and conservative vs liberal atmosphere resulting in the abhorrent and lawless social conditions we experience today.
The governmental balance of power that is to be shared administratively, legislatively, and judicially has drastically swung towards the court since the early 1960’s. However, it was a point of consternation as far back as 200 years ago. Thomas Jefferson who helped to draft the constitution, wrote in 1819 to Judge Spencer Roane and said, “Our Constitution . . . intending to establish three departments, co-ordinate and independent that they might check and balance one another, it has given—according to this opinion to one of them alone the right to prescribe rules for the government of others; and to that one, too, which is unelected by and independent of the nation. . . . The Constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.”
Then in 1821, in a letter to Charles Hammond, Jefferson once again expressed a great fear regarding America’s future as it pertained to the authority taken by the courts. His concern was that SCOTUS would dismantle the Constitution balance of power by taking authority that was not given to them. He declared, “The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the federal judiciary. An irresponsible body, working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief over the field of jurisdiction until all shall be usurped from the states.”
[Quotes from Link: http://www.robgagnon.net/JeffersonOnJudicialTyranny.htm ]
Abortion (Choice vs Pro-Life) is no doubt part of the gradual waning of Christian and moral influence of the US due to the gravitation of liberal viewpoints taken by SCOTUS. The current judicial interpretation of the U.S. Constitution regarding abortion, following the Supreme Court of the United States’ 1973 landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, and subsequent companion decisions, is that abortion is legal but may be restricted by the states to varying degrees. The State of Mississippi, represented through Dobbs and based upon new “scientific” and medical understanding is now challenging the Roe v Wade decision with a law that would curtail most of Roe v Wade and particularly restrict “late term abortions.” Should the court rule in favor of Dobbs, over 20 other states are poised and ready to follow in the direction that Mississippi is establishing. After 48 years of the shedding of innocent blood, this makes for a welcomed “awakening” in the United States where we have collectively murdered over 60 million babies in the womb. This is more than any genocide in history including the holocaust of Hitler’s Nazi Germany. This is an abomination before God and the time for a “course adjustment” has arrived.
Very obviously, the founders of the United States of America never intended for the Supreme Court to be the ranking branch of our government. Nowhere does our Constitution give them authority over the Executive and Legislative branches.
In 1860, at the beginning of the Civil War when the country was again divided over states rights and slavery, the 16th President of the Untied States, Abraham Lincoln, was quoted as saying:
“…The candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government, upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties, in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having, to that extent, practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.”
I encourage all Americans to look closely at what is happening in the world around us. This case before the Supreme Court is an opportunity to see justice for the unborn finally be rightly established. Let’s pray and believe that the Supreme Court will rule justly in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Make the voice of life and wholeness heard over the din of tumult. The potential for a great nation’s return to its foundation blocks is coming at a critical time in history. We are at a tipping point. Do we continue on this path towards destruction or do we see a moral and a Christian awakening to the desires and purposes of the Founders. The lawlessness, violence, injustice and other divergent issues of conduct need to be changed. Let’s begin to not just talk about policy and issues—let’s start doing something about them. Let’s grab those things that will turn our heads and our nation in the way once again of righteous and just patterns of life. It is time for the prophesy of Isaiah 28:15-18 to be manifested for the United States of America.
“For you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death and a pact with the underworld, so when the overwhelming scourge sweeps over us, it will not harm us. For we have made lies our refuge and find our shelter in falsehood.’ Here’s what the Lord God says: ‘Behold, I set in place in Zion a Foundation Stone, fully tested and proven to be faithful and secure. And written upon this precious cornerstone is this: “Those who trust in Him will not act in haste.” I will set justice as the true measurement and integrity, its plumb line. My hailstorm will sweep away your refuge of lies, and My floodwaters will overwhelm your hiding place. Then your covenant with death will be annulled and your pact with the underworld will not stand. And when the overwhelming scourge sweeps over you, it will sweep you away!’” (The Passion Translation Bible)