Ramon Arias | October 24, 2016
Election day is almost here with early voting already underway. Like every presidential election, this one is no different; and it is taking center stage. The reason is evident because that office significantly affects the rest of the nation for better or for worse in all areas of life.
Every professing Christian and genuine patriot should not wash his or her hands and not vote, with a clear conscience. As I have stated before, there isn’t such a thing as neutrality in elections. It is a fact that every citizen votes for the kind of nation they want.
In the third and final presidential debate, the first issue Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump faced was about the U.S. Supreme Court. In the opening statement Wallace stated:
The first topic is the Supreme Court. You both talked briefly about the court in the last debate, but I want to drill down on this because the next president will almost certainly have at least one appointment and likely or possibly two or three appointments which means that you will in effect determine the balance of the court for what could be the next quarter century. First of all, where do you want to see the court take the country? And secondly, what’s your view on how the constitution should be interpreted? Do the founders’ words mean what they say or is it a living document to be applied flexibly, according to changing circumstances? (Emphasis added).
Every concerned American needs to understand the depth of appointing judges to the Supreme Court and the following two questions. This is how Clinton and Trump answered:
Clinton: Thank you very much Chris and thanks to UNLV for hosting us. You know, I think when we talk about the Supreme Court, it really raises the central issue in this election. Namely, what kind of country are we going to be?… For me, that means that we need a Supreme Court that will stand up on behalf of women’s rights, on behalf of the rights of the LGBT community,… I have major disagreements with my opponent about these issues and others that will be before the Supreme Court. But I feel that at this point in our country’s history, it is important that we not reverse marriage equality, that we not reverse Roe v. Wade,
Wallace: Mr. Trump, same question. Where do you want to see the court take the country and how do you believe the constitution should be interpreted?
Trump: … The Supreme Court, it is what it is all about. … it is just so imperative that we have the right justices…. We need a Supreme Court that in my opinion is going to uphold the second amendment and all amendments,… I’ve named 20 of them. The justices that I am going to appoint will be pro-life. They will have a conservative bent. They will be protecting the second amendment. They are great scholars in all cases and they’re people of tremendous respect. They will interpret the constitution the way the founders wanted it interpreted and I believe that’s very important. I don’t think we should have justices appointed that decide what they want to hear. It is all about the constitution of, and it is so important. The constitution the way it was meant to be. And those are the people that I will appoint.
Wallace: Well, let’s pick up on another issue which divides you, and the justices that, whoever ends up winning this election appoints, could have a dramatic effect there. That’s the issue of abortion. Mr. Trump, you’re pro-life. And I want to ask you specifically. Do you want the court, including the justices that you will name, to overturn Roe v. Wade, which includes, in fact, states a woman’s right to abortion.
Trump: Well, if that would happen, because I am pro-life and I will be appointing pro-life judges, I would think that would go back to the individual states.
Trump: If we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that is really what will happen. That will happen automatically in my opinion. Because I am putting pro-life justices on the court. I will say this. It will go back to the states and the states will then make a determination.
Clinton: Well, I strongly support Roe v. Wade which guarantees a constitutional right to a woman to make the most intimate, most difficult in many cases, decisions about her health care that one can imagine…. Donald has said he is in favor of defunding planned parenthood. He even supported shutting the government down to defund planned parenthood. I will defend planned parenthood. I will defend Roe v. Wade and I will defend women’s rights to make their own healthcare decisions.
Wallace: I’m going to give you a chance to respond. But I wanted to ask you Secretary Clinton, I want to explore how far you think the right to abortion goes. You have been quoted as saying that the fetus has no constitutional rights. You also voted against a ban on late term partial birth abortions. Why?
Clinton: Because Roe v. Wade very clearly sets out that there can be regulations on abortion so long as the life and the health of the mother are taken into account.
Wallace: Mr. Trump, your reaction. Particularly on this issue of late term partial birth abortions.
Trump: Well I think it is terrible. If you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month you can take baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby. Now, you can say that that is okay and Hillary can say that that is okay, but it’s not okay with me. Because based on what she is saying and based on where she’s going and where she’s been, you can take baby and rip the baby out of the womb. In the ninth month. On the final day. And that’s not acceptable….
Trump: And honestly, nobody has business doing what I just said. Doing that as late as one or two or three or four days prior to birth. Nobody has that.
It is not enough that the highest percentage of the population affirms that we are going in the wrong direction; we need to know what brought us to our present condition. Consider some of the unconstitutional decisions made by the majority in the Supreme Court:
On June 25, 1962, prayer was removed from public schools.
On June 17, 1963 the court decided against Bible readings in public schools.
After the ruling on June 17, 1963, the Wall Street Journal commented that atheism was now “the one belief to which the state’s power will extend its protection.”
In essence, the court’s decision gave superior status to atheism over the acceptance of the biblical God in America.
Can you, in all honesty, tell what happened to the cultural landscape of our country since then? America’s radical decline in the children, youth, family, education, and national life, is incomparable in her history.
On January 22, 1973, in a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court said the Constitution gives the woman the right to decide to end the life of her unborn baby. The issue was not about woman’s health like they now want us to believe; by the way, pregnancy is not an illness. Nevertheless, the death penalty was decreed against the unborn babies. Seven Supreme Court Justices agreed that somewhere in the penumbra of the Constitution they found the magic truth. Since then close to SIXTY MILLION babies have been denied their CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS but more importantly, GOD’S GIFT OF THE RIGHT TO LIFE AND LIBERTY.
On June 26, 2015, the Court ruled 5-4 that homosexual marriage is a constitutional right. Five individuals decided to go against thousands of years [since the dawn of human history] of proven science and cultural relevance of human reproduction and stable societies.
From the very beginning of its formation, the judiciary branch has recreated or altered the Constitution. Jefferson understood and warned what was going to happen with justices who had un-American ideologies:
“[T]he opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves, in their own sphere of action, but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch.” —Thomas Jefferson (1804)
Christians have always been the majority, and yet the decline of the nation testifies to the fact that a minority has been dominating our country. How is this possible? Two obvious facts answer that question: lack of biblical worldview and wrong biblical teachings.
So as you can see, this election is not about liking a candidate, rather, it is to know their ideological positions on all the issues. The other important aspect is, which candidate can we work with to return the nation back to her biblical foundation.
Be weary of the worn out concept of democracy, because America was never founded to be one. Twelve years before the Declaration of Independence, with no new experiment of a national government in sight but with real understanding of what a democracy is, John Adams said:
“[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man’s life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few.” —John Adams (1763)
The only form of government that is lasting with promising results is the government of God; it is for the here and now in human history; to that end, God’s people are called to labor in each generation.
“[Y]our will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10
“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” John 17:15