Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI200461A
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00:28 Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
00:30 This is a program designed to bring you up to speed 00:33 on religious liberty developments 00:35 in the US and around the world. 00:37 My name is Lincoln Steed, Editor of Liberty magazine. 00:41 And I want to hit this program 00:45 running with current events. 00:48 I think even a year from now, 00:52 we will look back on the events of the most recent past 00:55 with the charges laid against the president of the US 01:00 on a possible impeachment, 01:02 he was impeached but not convicted. 01:05 We'll see this as something quite extraordinary. 01:10 After all, there haven't been that many impeachments 01:13 in the 200 plus years of the US history. 01:17 Abraham Lincoln's Vice President Johnson 01:21 was impeached but not convicted. 01:25 Sort of a hero of mine, Richard Nixon, not a hero, 01:30 but I admired him for... 01:32 If nothing else, moving beyond his McCarthy past, 01:36 he was under impeachment. 01:39 The articles had been drawn up, 01:41 but the trial never took place because he left town. 01:46 Then there was, of course, Bill Clinton, 01:51 and he was impeached, but again, not convicted. 01:55 I think myself over rather personal irregularities 02:00 and say, you know, 02:02 moral irregularity and lying about it, 02:07 but not really a matter of state per se, 02:11 but it was a major issue and he survived. 02:13 Amazingly, his popularity increased after that. 02:17 So that's the history of impeachment 02:18 until only a few weeks ago 02:21 when President Trump was impeached by the house 02:26 and it went to the Senate 02:27 where he was on purely party lines 02:30 or pretty much party lines, exonerated. 02:33 I want to share with you 02:35 what I wrote for Liberty magazine. 02:38 And since it's such a hot issue, 02:42 I want to read my own words carefully. 02:45 The intent is not to offend, 02:47 but to describe the situation 02:49 and particularly how it relates to religious freedom 02:53 and the separation of church and state in the United States, 02:56 particularly in this case. 02:58 This is what I wrote under the title of The Kingdom. 03:02 On one level, events of late 03:05 have had a certain air of deja vu for me. 03:08 As a young man, 03:10 I followed the events leading up to the decision 03:12 to impeach President Nixon. 03:15 The storyline was a bit like a John le Carre's spy novel, 03:19 involving as it did money payoffs by Korea, 03:23 a coincidental plane crash, 03:27 the mad wife of one of the principals, 03:30 and the incredible stretching routine 03:33 that erased vital evidence from tapes 03:35 we only belatedly realized existed 03:38 and held a record of everything. 03:41 No need for redactions or summaries 03:43 from that point on. 03:45 And then the man I had so looked up to, 03:47 President Nixon, 03:48 he of the shady McCarthy past, 03:51 redeemed by rapprochement with China, 03:55 weeping about his mother 03:57 and waving with crooked smile as he flew away 04:00 from the presidency and the sure conviction. 04:03 But pardoned by his successor in a deal 04:06 that may have been charitable, 04:08 but ran against the spirit of the Constitution, 04:11 which forbade the president to use his pardoned powers 04:15 against impeachment. 04:18 And not so long ago, 04:19 another president ran the gauntlet of impeachment, 04:23 if not for the higher crime of personal immorality, 04:26 than for lying and perjury, after the fact. 04:30 Amazingly, it had only a positive effect 04:32 on his presidency, and his popularity, 04:37 which makes me think 04:38 that these events have finally become more political theater 04:43 than serious legal proceedings for the good of the Republic. 04:47 But the sobering reality is that massive changes 04:51 and aggregations of national norms are at play. 04:57 Going into the whole event, 04:58 we were expected to either close ranks 05:00 with either of the political party lines 05:02 or if not, then be reduced to slack jawed fascination 05:07 at the Kabuki theater of the absurd. 05:11 It didn't help that a mad or careless lawyer 05:14 provided comic relief to a serious question. 05:17 It didn't help that much of the argument 05:20 was deflected to a certain, but he did it. 05:24 Why am I in trouble? 05:26 Only about midpoint in the tawdry tale, 05:29 did we get to the real issue at play. 05:32 It is one that has massive implications 05:35 for the survival of a free Republic 05:37 as we know it, 05:39 and to focus my general horror on something 05:42 that this magazine and this program cares about. 05:46 There are clear implications 05:49 for how religion and religious liberty 05:51 might fare under the emerging paradigm. 05:56 That moment was on display 05:58 when Professor Alan Dershowitz gave his legal two cents worth 06:02 on the central story. 06:05 "Even if a president used his power 06:07 for personal ends upon this legal get about, 06:11 as long as he believes 06:13 that there is a state interest involved, 06:15 that is okay. 06:17 Convenient, and surely so wrong 06:20 that the framers of the Constitution, 06:23 the fathers of the Republic, 06:26 the men who rejected the relative autocracy 06:29 of the British crown, 06:31 the men who wrote so much about the balance of powers 06:34 and the limits to power entrusted by the people, 06:37 surely so wrong, 06:39 that the howl of derision in such a statement 06:42 should have shaken the nation." 06:44 But very little pushback, 06:46 even as the professor tried to redefine his position 06:50 or his statement on later TV programs. 06:53 "The reality is that this was merely an MTV version 06:58 of a whole philosophy of power 07:01 known as the unitary theory of presidential power 07:05 is hard to pin down. 07:07 But it describes what amounts to kingly power." 07:12 Years ago 07:14 during the confirmation of Attorney General Gonzales, 07:18 I remember him being asked if the president was bound, 07:22 and it was a president, not this president. 07:25 If a president was bound by the laws of Congress, 07:29 and he said "No." 07:32 A senator asked him 07:33 if a president was bound by the laws 07:37 passed by the people's representatives, 07:39 and signed into law by himself, or a predecessor, 07:44 again, "No, sir." 07:47 In a hyperbolic moment, 07:49 a presidential candidate joked 07:52 that he could shoot someone in the street 07:54 and get away with it. 07:56 Amazingly, presidential lawyers actually took the same stance 08:00 in front of a New York State judge. 08:03 My point is not so much 08:05 that our good president or any successor 08:08 might actually do such a mischievous thing. 08:11 But to illustrate how far we have drifted 08:15 from a Constitutional norm. 08:17 The partisanship we all decry, 08:21 is actually making this precipitous shift, 08:25 and of course, then making it more dangerous. 08:30 This president has gone out of his way 08:32 to speak well of religious liberty. 08:35 And I pray that he continues to do so. 08:39 Liberty magazine reprinted some of his statements 08:43 and some actions by his administration. 08:46 We are thankful, 08:48 thankful that he is adhering to a founding principle 08:51 so succinctly expressed 08:54 in the First Amendment of the Constitution. 08:56 One of the amendments, remember, 08:58 required by the states 09:00 as a condition of ratification of the Constitution, 09:05 but full religious liberty 09:07 is on less than solid and shifting ground, 09:11 if it depends on the smile of a president 09:14 described by the unitary principle of power. 09:19 Christianity, in a 2000 year history 09:23 went from a growing group of persecuted followers 09:25 of Jesus Christ, 09:27 to an often persecuting state ally power. 09:32 And following a reformation 09:33 that came at a time 09:35 of a flowering of personal freedom, 09:37 arrived at its present dynamic state 09:39 of openness and charity. 09:42 A big part of that success story, 09:44 especially in this new world, 09:47 was a removal of state control and an assumption 09:51 that religion is a private matter of conscience. 09:56 It was the power of a Roman emperor 09:58 and assorted European kings 10:01 that channeled religion into the ditch of persecution. 10:06 Unfortunately, much of our present dynamic 10:09 seems to be repeating that model of history. 10:13 Constantine, the Emperor Constantine 10:16 championed Christianity without knowing much about it. 10:21 He required doctrinal unity, 10:24 and the church obliged by regulating itself 10:27 into conformity. 10:29 And I might say 10:30 that Constantine obliged by helping them 10:33 persecute the dissidents. 10:36 Who cannot see that today with the unprecedented alliance 10:41 between a certain politically active Christian faction 10:46 and a very secular president, 10:48 determined to help them 10:51 that we have the beginnings of the Constantine model. 10:54 If the presidency continues, it's for some time now, 10:57 drift toward absolutism. 11:01 That First Amendment mandates 11:03 that the state is to make no law establishing religion. 11:09 Creative lawyers and even people of faith 11:11 anxious to advance their cause 11:13 might dance around this requirement. 11:15 But separation of church and state 11:18 was the Protestant ideal, 11:20 and was the aim of the founders by way of the Puritans 11:24 who railed against a state church 11:28 and the kings' use of and misuse of it. 11:31 The framers put this in the amendment, 11:33 along with instructions 11:35 that the free exercise of religion is to be protected. 11:41 I know that increasing numbers of Bible 11:43 believing patriots have begun to imagine a certain parallel 11:48 between a godly nation 11:51 and the way faith was protected in the Old Testament days 11:55 when the glory hovered over the temple 11:59 and God spoke good laws through His prophets. 12:03 It is an honorable image, 12:06 but cannot work absent real glory 12:10 and real prophets. 12:12 And it is worth remembering that the whole thing went wrong 12:15 when the people wished for a king 12:17 like the other nations. 12:19 That first king Saul was a man of much stature and promise. 12:24 But as the prophet Samuel warned, 12:27 he usurped justice and built up his own power, 12:32 and even in a theocracy, 12:34 he was not to assume religious prerogatives. 12:38 When Saul did that, and acted as a priest, 12:42 the prophet pronounced 12:43 that his kingdom was taken from him. 12:46 I fear that if we, in this secular republic, 12:51 lose sight of our founding principles, 12:55 forget the Constitutional guidelines 12:58 and advanced religion by fiat power, 13:02 we might experience not virtue, but decline. 13:07 You know, I hope that those words in a magazine 13:10 that goes out to, 13:14 not counting repeat readers of any given issue, 13:16 but a magazine that by its print run 13:18 is going up to about 165,000-175,000 people, 13:23 mostly in leadership or public trust positions. 13:28 I hope that that will have some effect 13:32 on the public understanding of where we are. 13:35 I don't imagine that just words alone will change the reality 13:40 but we are clearly in this western democracy, 13:45 more than just a democracy, 13:46 more than just a western country, 13:49 a country that self consciously 13:51 and even by prophetic identification by my church, 13:56 as a clear power mentioned in Revelation. 14:00 I would hope that in this country 14:01 we see where we're heading 14:04 and that there'd be a groundswell of turning away 14:07 from a bad tendency. 14:10 It's still a relatively free country, 14:13 arguably one of the freest in the world, but not as free, 14:17 not as committed to its Constitutional ideals 14:21 as it was even a generation ago. 14:24 Interesting times to live in. 14:27 Let's take a short break 14:28 and I'll be back after the break. 14:30 Stay with us. |
Revised 2020-05-21