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Research Term: Law, Politics, and Government

Summit Lecture Series
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Essays
Truth & Consequences
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Summit Lecture Series

Chronicle of an Undeception
In this session, Michael Bauman recounts the story of his journey through life, the influence of the 1960s and the beliefs he held about the world. He tells of how his deceptive beliefs led him only to emptiness and how his soul found no rest but in God.

Essays

Wedding Bell Blues (via Equip)
Same-sex marriage proponents defend their position by arguing that government neutrality is violated when the state allows only people of different genders to marry one another. Yet the same-sex marriage position is far from neutral. It asserts that government ought to prefer a view of human nature that sees human institutions, such as marriage and the family, as artificial social constructions ruled by personal subjective preference. Because proponents of this view try to establish marriage on the basis of adult consent and desire rather than on marriage’s intrinsic value and the natural teleology (purpose) of the body (or person), numerous counterintuitive and irrational consequences result.

Protecting America’s Immune System (via Equip)
The legalization of homosexual marriage threatens traditional marriage — the national immune system that protects our civilization from destruction. Biblically based arguments against homosexual marriage carry little weight in the public square; however, it is possible to make a reasonable argument to protect traditional marriage and oppose the legalization of homosexual marriage without appealing to the Bible. This argument is as follows...

The Religious Foundation of American Politics
At its most foundational level, this war over ideas is over the place of religion in public life. In recent years, some people have used the concept of "separation of church and state" as a principle to eliminate religious perspectives from public places and public education. These people emphasize that ours is a "pluralistic" society. However, others contend that religion, and specifically the Bible and Christianity, has an important role to play in our political system and public issues. As a result of these two opposing views, there continues to be a debate about the proper place of religion in the public square. To settle the dispute, something must be known about the foundation upon which our government is built. Knowing how something is designed is crucial to its operation...

Government is too Big and It’s Costing You!
The biggest problem with America today is that the federal government is too large. With an ever-growing appetite, government gobbles up our few remaining freedoms, leaving us with increasingly complex rules and regulations that are impossible to understand. And then it raises our taxes so that it has enough money to keep on growing. Government has gotten too big! "The Lord's Prayer is 66 words. The Gettysburg Address is 286 words. The entire Declaration of Independence is just 1,322 words. Yet, the government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911," Rep. John T. Doolittle said in August 1994...

Truth & Consequences

A Republic, If You Can Keep It
Sometimes a simple question can reveal a lot about what a person thinks. A well-framed question can get under the surface to show where beliefs have taken a wrong turn, leading to faulty conclusions. A worldview approach to life’s key issues helps us know the right questions to ask in order to uncover where the wrong turn is taken and how to correct it. Take, for example, this past spring when I was speaking to a class of seniors at a prestigious Christian high school on the west coast. Boy was I surprised when what I thought was a simple question lead to an hour-long discussion...

An Open Letter to President Barack Obama
Dear Mr. President, On your website I found the following statement: “We must fix a broken health care system . . .” Regarding this initiative, I am very concerned that you and Congress are overstepping the bounds of your job description as outlined in the Constitution. When taking the oath of office, you promised to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” There is nothing in the Constitution directing the Federal government to “fix” anything, much less a privately operated and freely chosen system of medical treatment.

Is Government-Run Health Care a Good Idea?
There is a huge debate across our nation as to whether government-run health care is a good idea. Those who believe that government should be involved in providing medical care for citizens see healthcare as a basic right of the people. If so, then government should provide this service in the same way it provides other services, like police and fire protection or other community services. On the other hand, others are convinced that government should not be in the health care business. They are convinced medical concerns are best left in the hands of individuals and their doctors. They say that private charities, not government, should help those who cannot afford medical treatment. How should we think about this debate? Is there a right side to this issue, or is it just a matter of personal opinion? Are there biblical principles that can help us decide?

God and Government
It seems that all we hear from the campaign trail is constant bickering, blaming the other party for whatever the current national bad news happens to be, and personal attacks on political opponents. These tactics obscure the real issues and cause many Americans to grow weary of the rhetoric. To cut through the fog of political spin we need to get back to the basic ideas that are foundational to good government. To recall those basic concepts, let's start with a question. What would you say is the foundational document of the United States? It may come as a surprise, but according to a Newsweek cover story...

Christianity and Politics
When Wisconsin public high school senior Rachel Horner provided the school faculty with the lyrics of a song she planned to sing at her graduation ceremony, they came "unglued." The reason? The song mentions God three times. The school principal told Rachel that "God" might offend some of the audience and would violate the "separation of church and state." The principal suggested Rachel replace references to "God" with "He," "Him" and "His." When Miss Horner filed a federal lawsuit, the school...

Read Any Good Books Lately?
A federal judge ruled last January (2008) that a southeastern Missouri school district's long-standing practice of allowing the distribution of Bibles to grade school students is unconstitutional. This is the latest salvo by the courts to secularize our society. The misguided notion that the public square and especially the public school must be scrubbed clean of any references to Christianity continues to gain force. There are, however, many educators who would disagree with this conclusion, as the following article, written by a friend, Kim Kinney, demonstrates...

Martin Luther King and Natural Law
On the third Monday of every January our nation celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. It was King, more than any other public figure of the past century, who pricked the nation's conscience concerning the injustice of treating people differently because of the color of their skin. But while most of us recall King for his efforts as a civil rights leader, few people are aware of the specific reasons why King fought so valiantly for equality before the law. King understood that ideas about individual liberty and civil justice must come from prior assumptions concerning the law. These assumptions are grounded on considerations of what is morally right and, ultimately, on the nature of God. But sadly, we have forgotten those principles...

Separating Secular Humanism and the State
Secular Humanism is a well-articulated worldview. This is evident from the three Humanist Manifestos written in 1933 and revised in 1973 and again in 2000. According to their own pronouncements, Secular Humanists are atheists who believe that the scientific method is the primary way we can know about life and living, from understanding who we are as humans to questions of ethics, social issues, and politics. However, apart from the specifics of what Secular Humanists believe, the pressing issue is this: is Secular Humanism a religion?

Abortion and the Supreme Court
Thirty-four years ago this month something happened to a new term, and a novel idea was ushered into our national consciousness. The novel idea was "reproductive rights" and the occasion was the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, Roe v. Wade, handed down on January 22, 1973. But does a woman's "reproductive rights" supercede the unborn child's "right to life"? This issue has been the central point of contention for the past thirty-four years. To answer that question, we need to evaluate a key point raised in the original decision...

In God We Trust
Fifty years ago, on July 30th, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a joint resolution from Congress declaring "In God We Trust" the official motto of the United States. But it was in 1861 that Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln, first saw the need to recognize our creator by writing to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia that "No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins." By subsequent acts of Congress, the phrase has been stamped on U.S. coins since 1864. However, it wasn't until 1956 that...

Andrew Sullivan’s Elephant
There is an overlooked elephant in the room that Andrew Sullivan's May 15th Time Magazine essay unknowingly, yet brilliantly, illustrates. In his essay, titled "My Problem with Christianism," Mr. Sullivan coins the term "Christianist" for those on the "religious right" who hold the belief that "religion dictates politics." From that idea he strongly "dissents." But the elephant (the pachyderm variety, not the Republican kind) standing next to him is this...

Supreme Decisions
It's all over the news: talk about senate filibusters and federal court nominations. And now comes the big showdown: President's Bush's anticipated nominee for the Supreme Court. After Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) declared, "The filibuster is on the table. It has been on the table for 200 years." What is one to make of all the rhetoric? How do we sort through the verbal...

Is John Kerry Listening?
After graduating Summit's Summer Conference, Vickie Tarleton was able to put her training into action, authoring an editorial that appeared in the Jackson Progress Argus on October 20, 2004. Vickie has given us permission to use her article with slight emendations to all our readers...

Why Christians Should Vote
Americans are blessed to have a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." But democracy has one key requirement: our participation. And the most basic democratic participation is voting. Yet it can also have the most profound impact. When you vote, you help determine who will lead our nation, make our laws and protect our liberties. More than a right, voting is a privilege that millions of people in other parts of the world can only dream about. Still, many Americans choose not to vote....

Politics and the Christian
When Wisconsin public high school senior Rachel Horner provided the school faculty with the lyrics of a song she planned to sing at her graduation ceremony, they came "unglued." The reason? The song mentions God three times. The school principal told Rachel that "God" might offend some of the audience and would violate the "separation of church and state." The principal suggested Rachel replace references to "God" with "He," "Him" and "His." When Miss Horner filed a federal lawsuit, the school...

Homosexual Marriage
Much ink has spilled regarding whether homosexuals should be allowed to legally marry. And while the debate is multi-faceted, the ultimate concern can be expressed in one question: "What is sex?" Not "sex," meaning intercourse, but sex as in gender. Those endorsing gay marriage have an underlying assumption about gender. Whether they express it in these terms or not, the assumption is that...

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Research Term: Law, Politics, and Government

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