{"id":6655,"date":"2012-08-03T05:42:05","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T09:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=6655"},"modified":"2012-08-08T18:10:08","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T22:10:08","slug":"interpreting-the-constitution-like-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/08\/interpreting-the-constitution-like-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"Interpreting the Constitution like the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I was raised to be an originalist. When asking what the constitution meant, we were always to look at the \u201coriginal intent\u201d of the founding fathers. PZ has just offered a perfect example<\/a> of this:<\/p>\n

That man [Scalia] \u00a0is a dangerous lunatic. He\u2019s got a theological dedication to insisting that the US must be run exclusively by the 18th century principles of the Founding Fathers \u2014 even when he\u2019s\u00a0willing to consider limitations on the ownership of weapons, he gives it an unbelievable twist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The justice explained that under his principle of originalism, some limitations on weapons were possible. Fox example, laws to restrict people from carrying a \u201chead axe\u201d would be constitutional because it was a misdemeanor when the Constitution was adopted in the late 1700s.<\/p>\n

What the hell is a \u201chead axe\u201d, I wondered. So I looked it up. Here\u2019s a picture:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

OK, that looks nasty. I\u2019m glad the Supreme Court will think that casually carrying around a deadly looking thing like that is not reasonable behavior.<\/p>\n

But then look where his reasoning takes him:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about these technological limitations?\u201d Wallace wondered. \u201cObviously, we\u2019re not now talking about a handgun or a musket, we\u2019re talking about a weapon that can fire a hundred shots in a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d Scalia replied. \u201cObviously the amendment does not apply to arms that can not be hand-carried. It\u2019s to \u2018keep and bear\u2019 so it doesn\u2019t apply to cannons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, good. We can restrict people\u2019s ownership of cannons\u2026because he interprets the Constitution with a Ken Ham-like literal-mindedness that says the only weapons that count are carried.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I suppose there are handheld rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes that will have to \u2014 it\u2019s will have to be decided,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

So no head axes, and no artillery\u2026but the right to keep and bear arms can be extended to fucking\u00a0rocket launchers<\/em>. \u2026\u00a0I give up. Our legal leadership consists of brain-damaged, narrowly literal-minded amoral morons who worship an 18th century scrap of paper.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I quote this at length because it really does bring out the connection between a literal interpretation of the Bible and a literal interpretation of the Constitution. Because\u00a0they\u2019re the same. <\/em>Have you ever gotten in a fundamentalist row over head coverings? It\u2019s really pretty much the same thing as getting in the middle of a discussion on the second amendment.<\/p>\n

Growing up, I couldn\u2019t understand how anyone could not<\/em> follow an \u201coriginal intent\u201d understanding of the Constitution. I mean, what else even made sense? The reality is, for me at least, I couldn\u2019t change my literalist understanding of the Constitution<\/em> until I changed my literalist understanding of the Bible<\/em>. Only when I began to see the Bible as a living document with context and, well, raw humanity could I begin to see the Constitution that way as well.<\/p>\n

It might be a bit of a stretch to say that those on the far Right \u201cworship\u201d the Constitution, but they do seem to approach it with the same reverence and understanding that they approach their most sacred religious document. At least, I know I did.<\/p>\n

How about you? If you used to be, or still are, religious, do you think your religious belief and practice affected how you viewed and understood the Constitution?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was raised to be an originalist. When asking what the constitution meant, we were always to look at the \u201coriginal intent\u201d of the founding fathers. PZ has just offered a perfect example of this: That man [Scalia] \u00a0is a dangerous lunatic. He\u2019s got a theological dedication to insisting that the US must be run […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,11],"tags":[22,117],"class_list":["post-6655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","category-politics","tag-bible","tag-church-and-state"],"yoast_head":"\nInterpreting the Constitution like the Bible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was raised to be an originalist. When asking what the constitution meant, we were always to look at the "original intent" of the founding fathers. 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