We the People....

 

WE THE PEOPLE…

Please hear me out.

I’ve often been seeing these three words over the last few years. Usually on stickers on the bumpers of pickup trucks, in the rear windows of minivans, and splattered across social media posts. “We the people are going to take our country back.” “We the people are coming for you.” I wonder, though, how many of the folks who are pasting those words to their personal property actually know where the little phrase comes from.

It comes from the United States Constitution.

When was the last time you read the Constitution? It’s been a long time for me. You see, after all these years, I think we’ve begun to take it for granted. We know we have rights, but we’ve forgotten what locks them in for us. The United States Constitution.

·       Freedom to say what you want? –1^st Amendment of the United States Constitution

·       Freedom to own a gun? –2^nd Amendment of the United States Constitution

·       Freedom to worship as you wish? –1^st Amendment of the United States Constitution

·       Want to “plead the fifth”? –5^th Amendment of the United States Constitution

·       Being born in Indiana or Wisconsin or Utah or any other state or US territory guarantees that you’re a US citizen? –14^th Amendment of the United States Constitution

·       You can’t be arrested and transported to a dungeon without anyone knowing what happened to you? –5^th Amendment of the United States Constitution.

I could go on. The right for women to vote? Constitution. The right for people of color to vote? Constitution. The right of a free and unencumbered press to report the news? Constitution.

Everything we have a right to do hinges on the dedication of our government to fully respect our constitution. If that begins to break down, then we are headed headlong toward widespread infringement of our fundamental rights. ALL OF US. We the people. All the people.

Here’s the extended version of the “We the people” phrase…

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” The Preamble of the United States Constitution.

Just so you all know, those three words (We the people) don’t ONLY apply to the percentage of folks on the right side of the political spectrum who identify as MAGA patriots. Rather, it applies to all citizens of the USA, and some portions of the overall document extend beyond citizens to other folks (persons) who are “within the U.S. jurisdiction.” The overall document was written to guarantee all of us—right, left, and middle—certain rights and protect us against assaults on those rights.

You may love Donald Trump, or you may detest Donald Trump. Or, maybe you’re just trying to keep your head down, hanging onto your sanity with a white-knuckled grip. Regardless of where each of us stand, we ALL need to be dedicated first to maintaining the integrity of the Constitution.

On day one of the new DJT administration, our new President signed an executive order that specifically attacked the 14^th Amendment, attempting to breakdown the guaranteed right of citizenship by being born in our country. He did that within hours of swearing to “uphold and protect” the very document. Since then, he’s worked to restrict portions of the press that he doesn’t like—a deviation from the 1^st Amendment, he’s hinted at finding a way to have a third term—a violation of the 22^nd Amendment, and he’s arrested and deported people—putting them into a foreign prison—without any due process—a violation of the 5^th Amendment. On that last point, the 5^th Amendment guarantees “due process” to all persons, not just to citizens.

Here is the wording of the 5^th Amendment:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. 5^th Amendment of the United States Constitution

Church members and gang members alike are guaranteed due process under the law. The burden is on the government to prove their accusations, not just simply announce guilt without due process. If Kilmar Abrego Garcia is really a violent member of the MS-13 gang as the government is stating rather than the loving father and member of a working-class union as everyone who knows him is saying, fine. Go ahead and deport him. AFTER you prove it in court. He has the right to due process.

Our government doesn’t have the right to just “disappear” someone they don’t like—citizen or non-citizen. That’s fundamental.

Either we’re all in on the US Constitution or it’s a dead document and we’re all screwed.

If you’ve been screaming for years about infringements of the 2^nd Amendment, you should be just as horrified at the attacks on the 1^st, 5^th, 14^th, and 22^nd Amendments.

If one right can be ignored, they can all be ignored. If due process can be denied one person, it can be denied for all persons. If one portion of the Constitution can be broken, it is all is broken.

We the people…. Right now, depending on your political perspective, the wind may be blowing your way. Good for you. One day, however, the winds may change. If we let the Constitution fall, what will protect you then? Maybe you’ll just disappear into an El Salvadorian prison.

“We the People….” That’s all of us, right?

If the Shoe Fits...

 

Last fall, just before the 2024 election, I wrote a Facebook post that got me into a bit of hot water with a number of my “friends.” I put friends in quotation marks because I think there is a distinct difference between being real friends and being Facebook friends. Regardless, a number of these Facebook friends that took issue with me were honest-to-goodness old friends from before Facebook existed, and even some family. A few supported me but the loudest responses came from those who strongly disagreed with me. Some of those disagreements went even further and became personally hurtful.

What was my crime? What horrible thing did I say?

I simply stated that I would not vote for Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president, because I felt he was disqualified in light of his response to the January 6^th, 2021 storming of the United States Capitol Building. Further, I mentioned that some viewed it as a religious obligation to vote for the Republican candidate, and I stated that that was just not the case.

Here are my actual words from the post regarding the religious pressure:

“Now, a note to my Christian friends. Don’t let anyone tell you that voting for Donald Trump has anything to do with your faith or your salvation. It doesn’t—either way. The evangelical right likes to point to the Bible to coerce you to vote their way, but you need to know that Jesus was neither a Republican nor a Democrat. The more liberal-leaning left can sometimes do something similar. In fact, both sides can make compelling arguments, but you must decide for yourself despite their noise. Just don’t let someone twist your arm to make you vote for someone out of religious fear.

My decision this time around: Kamala Harris.”

Almost immediately, the reactions from my Christian friends started burning up the comment boxes. Some were the ones I expected. Normal disagreements and the ones making their case for why it was the right Christian thing to do to vote for DJT. Others were more personal though, like the one from a long-time friend from my teen years in youth group who told me I was going to have to answer to God for voting against everything he stands for.

Here are her actual words: “Yes, Mike you will stand before GOD an answer that you no longer believed in his word with a vote for a person who stands against everything that GOD says in his word!!”

This one stung because of who it was, but still… Because of this vote, I “no longer believed in his word” and this person (Kamala Harris) stands against EVERYTHING that God says in his word? Really? Everything? I’m still standing pretty strong on the “Love your Neighbor,” “Love your Enemies,” “Love One Another” parts, I think. I’m really wanting to dig deeper and do more to fulfill what Jesus expects from Matthew 25 for how we treat the “least of these.” Seems to me that Jesus made caring for the needs of others a bigger deal than how I voted in the Presidential Election of 2024. As for Harris, well, her moral, ethical, and faith background look pretty stellar when compared to the same factors on the Republican side. She’s not perfect. No one is. There are some negatives. But, “everything”? Please.

Two other people have told me in two different responses, one text and the other a different Facebook interaction, that they didn’t like that I tended to “call out” other Christians in my posts. That’s made me go “hmm” for the last three or four months as I considered those accusations.

In general, I’ve not attacked other Christians because of their choice of Donald Trump. It did make me sad, but for the most part, I’ve held my tongue. I’ve only pushed back when some of them have tried to make it a moral imperative for other Christians to vote a certain way. What I have done over the last few years is perhaps annoyingly harp on the need to focus on loving God and loving others as THE primary focus of the Christian life. If that makes some feel like I’m calling them out, then check to see if the shoe fits. It might be a Proverbs 28:1 thing: “The wicked flee though no one pursues,…”

The church doesn’t need control. It needs to love.

The church doesn’t need political power. It needs to love.

The church doesn’t need a list of moral rules. It needs to love.

The church doesn’t need to enforce it’s own set of values on the world. It needs to love.

If you’re focused on loving your neighbor, you won’t…

·       Steal anything

·       Insult or denigrate anyone

·       Sexually use or abuse anyone

·       Lie to gain any kind of personal advantage

·       Leave them hurting, hungry, or helpless

Basically, everything that is sin is the antithesis of love. The solution is to love and to teach others to love. Then the problem of sin will take care of itself.

If you’re focused on loving your neighbor, you will…

·       Help them get what they need

·       Feed them when they’re hungry

·       Care for them when they’re sick

·       Hold them when they’re hurting

·       Stand up for them when they need support

Love drives us to do good to others.

My struggle is that I don’t see the modern church (yes, I know there are exceptions) focused on this. Rather, I see it pursuing control, political power, and the imposing of moral codes. This is short-sighted and out-of-step with the teachings of Christ.

I’m going to close out this blog post with a rewording of a portion of Matthew 25 so that it reflects how many modern Christians seem to expect Christ to address them on the last day.

Here goes:

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you left food supplies to rot on shipping docks, I was thirsty and you let factories poison my water supply, I was a stranger and you deported me, I needed clothes and you fired me, I was sick and you made it harder to get medicine, I was in prison and you made me disappear.”

Yes, now I am calling you out. If the shoe fits, my friends, if the shoe fits…