Life; The Most Basic Right In America

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable (inalienable) Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..." - Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson, presented to the Continental Congress on June 28, 1776 and signed on July 4, 1776, marking the end of British rule over the thirteen colonies South of Canada.

   Moral conservatives have long been awaiting the effects of what they have voted for and won in electing George W. Bush. On Wednesday, April 18, 2007, some 1,925 days after he was inaugurated, The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on Partial Birth Abortion on this day, Wednesday April 18, 2007. Roe V. Wade has been the law of the land since 1973 and despite the original promise to keep the elective procedure to first term, moral conservatives have watched, in angst, both second and third  terms of pregnancies advance incrementally to  inside of the protections of the law to abort fetuses. The most controversial of all abortion procedures has been the PBA and has been hotly contested since the practice began.
   
      Throughout American history there have been few moral issues that divide the nation as deeply as the abortion one. Perhaps slavery being the only one eclipsing abortion as the greatest moral issue but that was the issue of the nine-teenth century. Abortion has been fought for as a legal right since 1916. Secularists have made great strides in American Law as a result of defeating traditional moral values with moral relativity. Pointing to the Holy Bible had become a tool of the past in the nation's courtrooms based on several key Supreme Court findings. I think I can safely say that the greatest victory for secular progressives came in 1947 Everson V. Board of  Education when Justice Hugo Black (KKK Member and former US Senator) wrote the now famous holding regarding the Establishment Clause, " The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the federal government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance. No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of  Thomas Jefferson the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect "a wall of separation between church and State."  

           So here I see the most profound finding in our judiciary to ban any argument based on an absolute moral authority, that being God. Secularists seized on this and in a lightening fast manner. In little less than a century, we have witnessed legalized abortion, same sex-marriage, banned school prayer,sexual revolutions, arguments for open illegal drug use, freedoms of speech expand to anarchist sentiment (when is the last time anyone has been charged with sedition?) and more guarded federal recognitions of religious holidays including Christmas (a national holiday).  Black, in his concern over  the rise of power of elected Catholics such as presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, obsessed over the objective to keep the US away from the influence of the Vatican. But in his mission to do this, he leaned on a letter that he failed to recognize in his holding, at least publicly, that Thomas Jefferson borrowed the phrase, "wall of separation", from Rhode Island founder Roger Williams who made reference to the Garden of Eden. Ironically, it was on September 13, 1635, that Separatist preacher Roger Williams, aged  32, was banished by the Massachusetts General Court for  advocating religious tolerance and separation of church and state. For denouncing the Massachusetts Bay Company charter, and for holding "diverse new and dangerous opinions against the authority of magistrates and ... yet maintaineth the same without retraction," he was sentenced by a religious authority for a civil crime. Enough with the Cliff Clavin trivia though, for now, although reversible, we must acknowledge that we live in a land of laws who's highest court felt the separation can be demonstrated in intent. 

      It always fascinates me when I see brilliant lawyers and statesmen use such intellectual dishonesty when debating that  the God of Abraham, Moses and David had no direct influence on the founding fathers of the United States of America.  When judges and lawyers discuss the Constitution, they try to prove intent of the authors. Since none are around today, we must go by what we know. We know what is written in the documents but in total disclosure, shouldn't we allow supplemental evidence of intent into the court? Writings of the founders not found in the founding documents such as letters by them or memoirs which included their positions on such vital matters for example. It is amazing to me that Justice Hugo black used the letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury, CT Baptist Association to hold the premise of a "designed wall of separation" but other "outside" documents are not as wanted when they  show a reverence for  a particular God in the words of these founders. Why not allow other documents and known historical utterances into the very same court? Why do the secular entities like the ACLU and others fight to deny them as evidence? Utterances like:

"The Constitution is designed for a moral and religious people. It is useless to the government of any other" - President John Adams (Yes I know he wrote that letter saying America was in no way founded on Christianity. *He was negotiating the release of American hostages with radical Muslim pirates in that letter!)

"God who gave us life gave us liberty and can the liberty of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis -- a conviction in the minds of people that they are the gift of God" - President Thomas Jefferson   ( In complete disclosure, I want to be clear that, based on his auto-biography and other biographies on him, I believe Jefferson wavered in and out of his faith and probably should be regarded as a Deist. He was though, a Deist that believed along with Christian and even secular founders that  the New Testament, while demonstrated poorly by organized religion in his mind, was a perfect moral foundation for a free people such as those found in the United States.)

The list of quotes goes on much further but I think you get my point. Yes there are many quotes  to oppose the ones I've shown but let's let them all be introduced into the debate in the Supreme Court.