Pat Robertson defends praying for the retirement of Supreme Court justices in an LA Times op-ed today. He begins with a historical summary with which I am in agreement:
For more than half a century, the U.S. Supreme Court has acted as a “super legislature” — no longer interpreting the Constitution, but rather writing and proclaiming its own law.
In 1962, it ruled prayer out of the public schools.
In 1963, it ruled the Bible out of public schools.
In 1973, it applied a “right of privacy” not found in the Constitution as the basis for opening the door to the slaughter of more than 43 million innocent unborn children.
Subsequent federal courts ruled that the Ten Commandments were illegal in schools, that statues of Jesus were illegal in public parks and that prayers on a map in North Carolina were illegal. They even ruled that it was illegal for little elementary schoolchildren to give thanks over their milk and cookies at snack time.
Now the Supreme Court has declared a constitutional right to consensual sodomy and, by the language in its decision, has opened the door to homosexual marriages, bigamy, legalized prostitution and even incest.
All of this is true or at least arguable.
The thing is, though, this is all a purely secular-legal-political argument. Except for the reiteration of the prayer policy:
As I have been quoted as saying, one justice is 83 years old, another has cancer and another has a heart condition. Is it not possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire?
Well, presuming there is indeed a God that has omnipotence and acts in mysterious ways, sure. But, while conceding that I’m not a religious man, I can’t imagine God cares much about how the Supreme Court interprets the US Constitution. After all, God hasn’t put it into the minds of the leaders of the vast majority of countries on the planet to establish democracy, liberty, and all the other institutions we take for granted. So, presumably, this means God lets these things take their political course. Or, alternatively, that there is no supernatural force guiding our politics. Either way, going on TV to petition for this seems silly.
(Hat tip: Howard Bashman)
