OK, here\u2019s where things stand in the war of words between the U.S. Supreme Court justice and the \u201cworldly wise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
According to Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, the elites that rule American intellectual life think that Christians who believe in Easter and other biblical miracles are irrational fools. According to many outraged journalists, politicos and intellectuals, it was irrational and foolish of him to lash out like that at the American people.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe are fools for Christ\u2019s sake,\u201d said Scalia, at a prayer breakfast sponsored by the Christian Legal Society chapter at the Mississippi College School of Law. \u201cWe must pray for the courage to endure the scorn of the sophisticated world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Note: Scalia blasted the \u201csophisticated,\u201d \u201cmodern\u201d and \u201cworldly wise.\u201d Then, the very groups he criticized returned fire by saying that he was attacking America \u2014 period.<\/p>\n\n
The Washington Post reported: \u201cScalia, a devout Roman Catholic, issued a harsh condemnation of American society, portraying it as not just skeptical of, but openly hostile to religious believers \u2014 particularly Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
One of Scalia\u2019s most outspoken critics went further. \u201cIt\u2019s a right-wing litmus test. \u2026 If you don\u2019t say religion is being beat up on, then you aren\u2019t pitifully correct,\u201d the Rev. James Dunn, of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, told the Washington Post. \u201cIf the American people were as anti-religious as everyone says, then a Supreme Court justice wouldn\u2019t have the right to run around saying things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
It would help to know more about what Scalia said. However, the justice insisted that his remarks not be taped and his office has not released a text. The Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger and the Associated Press filed reports and many who were in attendance have been interviewed by journalists.<\/p>\n\n
Obviously, Scalia knew his remarks \u2014 which were laced with sarcasm and irony \u2014 would cause a firestorm, said Phillip E. Johnson, an outspoken Christian who teaches law at the University of California at Berkeley.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cBut no one is saying the American people are anti-religious \u2014 especially not Justice Scalia,\u201d said Johnson, who began his career as a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. \u201cWhat he was doing was defending belief in a supernatural God. That\u2019s his bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
A Baptist Press report offered another crucial detail. Scalia focused, in part, on 1 Corinthians 1: 18-19: \u201cFor the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, `I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the cleverness of the clever I will thwart.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
Today, very little has changed, said Scalia. \u201cThe worldly wise just will not have anything to do with miracles. \u2026 To be honest about it, that is the view of Christians taken by modern society. Surely those who adhere to all or most \u2026 traditional Christian beliefs are to be regarded as simple-minded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Concerning the resurrection, he added: \u201cIt is not irrational to accept the testimony of eyewitnesses who had nothing to gain. \u2026 The wise do not believe in the resurrection of the dead. So everything from Easter morning to the Ascension had to be made up by the groveling enthusiasts as part of their plan to get themselves martyred.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Scalia appears to have argued that the \u201cworldly wise\u201d are \u201cnaturalists\u201d who reject belief in a supernatural, intelligent, God, said Johnson, author of \u201cReason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law & Education.\u201d This means that the justice\u2019s remarks will anger modernist conservatives who preach social Darwinism, as well as secular liberals.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis is the big split right now in the Republican\u2019s rather shaky coalition \u2014 between the pure economic conservatives and those who stress a moral order,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cYou see, once you start talking about the God of the Bible, then you\u2019re talking about a God who makes moral demands and plays a real role in the real world. \u2026 For many people, it\u2019s shocking to hear a Supreme Court justice stand up and say he believes in that kind of God.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OK, here\u2019s where things stand in the war of words between the U.S. Supreme Court justice and the \u201cworldly wise.\u201d According to Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, the elites that rule American intellectual life think that Christians who believe in Easter and other biblical miracles are irrational fools. According to many outraged journalists, politicos and intellectuals, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n