Ensign: Vitale Signs
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 26 June 2015
Why should one feel it to be intolerable unless one had some kind of ancestral memory that things had once been different?
First, today's title is not a typo. It refers to the first in a series of defendants in a 1962 Supreme Court case known as Engel v. Vitale, a case people often cite in and out of church for its results, even when they don't realize it. Yes, Virginia, this is the infamous "the Supreme Court took God out of schools" ruling. And actually this ruling said a government-directed prayer violates the First Amendment even if it's non-denominational and even if students are allowed to not participate. Another case that got way further than it should have.
Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country. Amen.
Pray, I say with a conspiratorial wink, was the pre-1962 world such a one-step-away-from-heaven-on-earth that people truly felt this threatened, that this was the beginning of the end of civilization? I don't know firsthand, as I was born nine years later. From some studies I've done of the history of that time, I recall the cold war, the civil rights movement ... but nothing about the prayer and praise riots. It's just often I hear from people a generation older than me how "since the Supreme Court kicked God out of schools" or some permutation our society is dying on the vine? It seems near every act of violence comes back to that.
Reverend Padover here gave a few lectures thirty years ago and lost his flock between one Sunday and the next for his views.
Does it occur to you at all, you who find it easier to point to the symptoms than the cause -- does it occur to you that we're NOT acting out or contrary to what you see as the will of God because we are necessarily wicked people? Now at this point it sounds like Ensign this week is a devotion-length rant, but give me a minute ... hell is going to be full of not-necessarily-wicked people, or could be if we don't start taking the Great Commission seriously -- not only to know what it says and know it, but to do it! And to accept Jesus' own words, we have to accept Who He Is -- does that not follow?
If you are among the many Americans -- of whatever sexual orientation -- who favor expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today's decision. But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.
I suspect by now you have seen the Supreme Court's ruling on whether to enforce four states' bans on same-sex marriages was voted down this morning 5-4. One of the five was Justice Kennedy, the typical swing vote. (See Ensign two weeks ago for more on that.) But here's the twist: it's not that those four and the remaining twelve states that did ban same-sex marriage -- and my home state of North Dakota is (or was?) one of them -- are being forced to marry every man to another man and every woman to another woman, it's that they're being ordered to not enforce the laws, the bans, they already have. If you're already married, then you are still married.
(And my thanks today for the quotes above from George Orwell's 1984, the prayer at issue in Engel v. Vitale, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and Chief Justice John Roberts' dissension.)
There are people who love the decision that came from those serving in that building in Washington, DC today with the engraving "EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW". There are people who hate it. I don't think either side is quite as vocal now as they're going to be in the days, months, and years ahead. But we need to ask ourselves when we don't agree with what a higher authority than us rules for us (this can be parents for children and bosses for parents just as easily as high courts for a nation), what did we really who disagree with it say or do to try to stop it?
Obergefell v. Hodges (the formal name for today's case decided by the Supreme Court) did not happen in a vacuum any more that Roe v. Wade or Engel v. Vitale or Dred Scott v. Sandford did. We who live under the authority of our government -- and as faithful believers rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar and unto God's what is God's -- have to be willing to accept some restrictions on what we can and can't do, what we can and can't say, to function ... and I would say grow up.
Perhaps not physically, but if you and I truly want to change our families and our communities and our world, we have to be willing to not only be our Lord and our God's agents of change in the world, we also have to accept that our world and our communities and our families are unfolding as HE set up from the very beginning.
Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit was no accident. Jesus dying on the cross and rising again the third day was no coincidence. And your reading to the end of this piece -- don't worry, if I'm still here there will be no Supreme Court recitation, I promise! -- is no flaw. If the flaw's in anybody it's in you and me.
TO BE ... OR NOT TO BE
David
P. S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages you too. If I'm not or you want me to get lost, please let me know -- thank you!
Thank You, Lord, that we can come to You in praise and prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even the ones we don't know we have! Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.
Thank You, Lord, for all of us in leadership and service here and abroad, as well as for opportunities we have and the promise of new life! I pray we all seek and have a blessed week. Amen.
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 26 June 2015
Why should one feel it to be intolerable unless one had some kind of ancestral memory that things had once been different?
First, today's title is not a typo. It refers to the first in a series of defendants in a 1962 Supreme Court case known as Engel v. Vitale, a case people often cite in and out of church for its results, even when they don't realize it. Yes, Virginia, this is the infamous "the Supreme Court took God out of schools" ruling. And actually this ruling said a government-directed prayer violates the First Amendment even if it's non-denominational and even if students are allowed to not participate. Another case that got way further than it should have.
Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country. Amen.
Pray, I say with a conspiratorial wink, was the pre-1962 world such a one-step-away-from-heaven-on-earth that people truly felt this threatened, that this was the beginning of the end of civilization? I don't know firsthand, as I was born nine years later. From some studies I've done of the history of that time, I recall the cold war, the civil rights movement ... but nothing about the prayer and praise riots. It's just often I hear from people a generation older than me how "since the Supreme Court kicked God out of schools" or some permutation our society is dying on the vine? It seems near every act of violence comes back to that.
Reverend Padover here gave a few lectures thirty years ago and lost his flock between one Sunday and the next for his views.
Does it occur to you at all, you who find it easier to point to the symptoms than the cause -- does it occur to you that we're NOT acting out or contrary to what you see as the will of God because we are necessarily wicked people? Now at this point it sounds like Ensign this week is a devotion-length rant, but give me a minute ... hell is going to be full of not-necessarily-wicked people, or could be if we don't start taking the Great Commission seriously -- not only to know what it says and know it, but to do it! And to accept Jesus' own words, we have to accept Who He Is -- does that not follow?
If you are among the many Americans -- of whatever sexual orientation -- who favor expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today's decision. But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.
I suspect by now you have seen the Supreme Court's ruling on whether to enforce four states' bans on same-sex marriages was voted down this morning 5-4. One of the five was Justice Kennedy, the typical swing vote. (See Ensign two weeks ago for more on that.) But here's the twist: it's not that those four and the remaining twelve states that did ban same-sex marriage -- and my home state of North Dakota is (or was?) one of them -- are being forced to marry every man to another man and every woman to another woman, it's that they're being ordered to not enforce the laws, the bans, they already have. If you're already married, then you are still married.
(And my thanks today for the quotes above from George Orwell's 1984, the prayer at issue in Engel v. Vitale, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and Chief Justice John Roberts' dissension.)
There are people who love the decision that came from those serving in that building in Washington, DC today with the engraving "EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW". There are people who hate it. I don't think either side is quite as vocal now as they're going to be in the days, months, and years ahead. But we need to ask ourselves when we don't agree with what a higher authority than us rules for us (this can be parents for children and bosses for parents just as easily as high courts for a nation), what did we really who disagree with it say or do to try to stop it?
Obergefell v. Hodges (the formal name for today's case decided by the Supreme Court) did not happen in a vacuum any more that Roe v. Wade or Engel v. Vitale or Dred Scott v. Sandford did. We who live under the authority of our government -- and as faithful believers rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar and unto God's what is God's -- have to be willing to accept some restrictions on what we can and can't do, what we can and can't say, to function ... and I would say grow up.
Perhaps not physically, but if you and I truly want to change our families and our communities and our world, we have to be willing to not only be our Lord and our God's agents of change in the world, we also have to accept that our world and our communities and our families are unfolding as HE set up from the very beginning.
Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit was no accident. Jesus dying on the cross and rising again the third day was no coincidence. And your reading to the end of this piece -- don't worry, if I'm still here there will be no Supreme Court recitation, I promise! -- is no flaw. If the flaw's in anybody it's in you and me.
TO BE ... OR NOT TO BE
David
P. S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages you too. If I'm not or you want me to get lost, please let me know -- thank you!
Thank You, Lord, that we can come to You in praise and prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even the ones we don't know we have! Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.
Thank You, Lord, for all of us in leadership and service here and abroad, as well as for opportunities we have and the promise of new life! I pray we all seek and have a blessed week. Amen.
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