DO WE NEED THE CONSTITUTION?

There has been much talk lately about whether we even need a Constitution or whether the Constitution just “gets in the way of progress” as posited by Georgetown Law Professor, Michael Seidman, in his essay recently published by the New York Times called “Let’s Give Up on the Constitution.”

It’s important for people of faith, and people who love liberty, to understand the unseen force driving Seidman’s line of thinking.

Seidman argues that our Constitution was written by privileged white men of another era whose thoughts and opinions have little to do with contemporary American life, therefore we should discard their work, and make up our own as we go.

His argument highlights a basic perspective typical of the secular left, rooted in Darwinian evolution. The thinking is, “We have evolved to a higher order, so we no longer need, or are well served by the thoughts of an inferior generation.”

Seidman and his ilk believe the highest authority is the contemporary mind of man. Therefore any document, rule or principle must submit to the interpretive authority of the modern man who reads it, and then It means whatever he says it means. This was clearly demonstrated by Chief  Justice, Charles Evan Hughes,  who said the Constitution means whatever the judge says it means. He couldn’t be more clear.

The conservative mind is a bit more humble, believing that there is a wisdom in the mind and heart of God that is superior to that of any man of any era. Our Constitution was an attempt to codify unchanging Biblical principles to establish a sense of “ordered liberty.” The principles set forth in the Constitution serve as an objective standard, an anchor keeping us moored to unchanging Judeo-Christian principles to guarantee continued peace, liberty and prosperity through generations. Our Constitution is the “how” to secure those inalienable rights put forward in our Declaration of Independence.

If we break away from the moorings of the Constitution we become susceptible to the whims of human nature which history has proven is capable of justifying unimaginable cruelty and even genocide in the name of “progress.”

If the Constitution can mean anything, whatever an “evolved” man thinks it should mean, then it will mean nothing, and we will regress to totalitarianism and barbarism already evidenced in baby-killing abortion, and the acceptance of hedonistic homosexuality. World history indicates that these are not progressive but rather regressive in human culture.

Do we need a Constitution? Absolutely, or be set adrift and ultimately condemn future generations to experience man’s inhumanity to man and social regression.