{"id":19845,"date":"2017-10-18T00:11:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T06:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=19845"},"modified":"2017-10-18T00:11:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T06:11:17","slug":"fagg-argues-for-god-inspired-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/10\/fagg-argues-for-god-inspired-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Fagg argues for God-inspired Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Crisp\"<\/a>

David Crisp<\/p><\/div>\n

I have tried without much success to take an interest in the parboiled debate over Judge Russell Fagg\u2019s so-called shadow campaign for the U.S. Senate. But my dutiful slog through Fagg\u2019s defense<\/a> of his actions in the Oct. 8 Billings Gazette screeched to a halt when I encountered this sentence: \u201cOur constitution, divinely inspired, gives everyone the right to express their opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s set aside the question of whether a Constitution that denied full rights to more than half the population, including women and slaves, truly allowed everyone to express opinions. What matters is whether someone who argues for the divine inspiration of the Constitution is fit to hold public office.<\/p>\n

The case that the Constitution was divinely inspired is popular in certain corners of reality, especially in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and among fans of David Barton, the author and evangelical who argues that the founding fathers had a Christian nation in mind.<\/p>\n

They point to a selective bag of evidence, including George Washington\u2019s statement in a letter to Lafayette<\/a> that it was \u201clittle short of a miracle\u201d that delegates with such varied interests were able to form a government with so few obvious defects. I believe the strict definition of \u201clittle short of a miracle\u201d is \u201cnot a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also point to Ben Franklin\u2019s suggestion<\/a>, during a contentious session of the constitutional convention, that the delegates begin their business each day with a prayer. According to James Madison\u2019s notes, the motion died without a vote.<\/p>\n

The Federalist Papers detected \u201cthe finger of God\u201d<\/a> in the passage of the Constitution, but the founders were under no illusions about who wrote the document. That \u201cfinger of God\u201d passage is followed by this sentence: \u201cI will not presume to say that a more perfect system might not have been fabricated; but who expects perfection at once?\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unrecorded that anyone who believes the Bible was divinely inspired has ever expressed this sentiment: \u201cA more perfect book might have been written, but who expects perfection at once?\u201d<\/p>\n

Other founders fully grasped that the Constitution was the work of frail humans. Washington\u2019s letter to Lafayette also contained this sentence: \u201cWe are not to expect perfection in this world: but mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in the science of Government.\u201d He pointed out that the Constitution contained provisions that allowed its defects to be mended.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Gouverneur Morris said at the convention, \u201cReason tells us we are but men, and we are not to expect any particular interference from heaven in our favor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander Hamilton put it this way<\/a> at the convention: \u201cIt is a miracle that we [are] now here exercising our tranquil and free deliberations on the subject. It would be madness to trust to future miracles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton, asked later why the Constitution failed to mention God, gave this (possibly apocryphal) reply: \u201cWe forgot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Constitution remains a remarkably farsighted and innovative document, brilliant by human standards but pretty shabby for God\u2019s work. The founders were well aware of some of the defects, such as the failure to settle the slavery question, a shortcoming that led within a century to what remains the nation\u2019s bloodiest war.<\/p>\n

God would never have blundered so egregiously. That children\u2019s song could never have said, \u201cRed and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight, except that some are only three-fifths as precious as the others.\u201d It doesn\u2019t rhyme. It doesn\u2019t scan. It doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

But the founders\u2019 views on divine inspiration hardly matter today, right? No, not unless the Constitution is treated as divine writ, as some Americans seem inclined to do.<\/p>\n

For example, my column last week<\/a> calling for an honest discussion of gun control drew multiple comments from Robert Eddleman, including the argument that what other countries do about gun control doesn\u2019t matter because they don\u2019t have a Second Amendment.<\/p>\n

Yes, but the Second Amendment wasn\u2019t engraved on stone tablets. It wasn\u2019t even part of the original Constitution; it was a response to the Constitution\u2019s perceived defects. It was as if God, after inspiring the document, had to pencil in a few corrections. Believing that the founders, given what guns can now do, would have written that amendment exactly the same way today is an act of faith, not of jurisprudence.<\/p>\n

As late as 2014, seven states still had language in their constitutions prohibiting those who do not believe in God from holding public office. The strain for theocracy runs strong in American governance.<\/p>\n

So where does Russell Fagg, now officially a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, fit in? Does he sort of vaguely believe that God\u2019s invisible hand somehow encouraged 18th century Americans to cobble together a flawed but estimable governing document? Or does he, as his Gazette column seemed to imply, believe the Constitution is the infallible word of God?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Fagg has yet to reply to my message to his campaign. He still owes voters an explanation. \u201cThe law,\u201d as \u201cO Brother, Where Art Thou?\u201d reminds us, \u201cis a human institution.\u201d We need to know whether Fagg intends for it to stay that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have tried without much success to take an interest in the parboiled debate over Judge Russell Fagg\u2019s so-called shadow campaign for the U.S. Senate. But my dutiful slog through Fagg\u2019s defense of his actions in the Oct. 8 Billings Gazette screeched to a halt when I encountered this sentence: \u201cOur constitution, divinely inspired, gives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3864],"tags":[6366,1845,717,2390],"class_list":["post-19845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-ben-franklin","tag-george-washington","tag-james-madison","tag-russell-fagg","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19845"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19847,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19845\/revisions\/19847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}