Table of Contents:

1. TODAY’S 10 COMMANDMENTS DECISION

                - “Supremely Unsatisfying”

2. GUEST COMMENTARY

                “Coming Soon to a State Near You: Kansas Supreme Court Demands More Money for Schools”

3. TIM EWING ON POINT OF VIEW RADIO

4. JUL/AUG 2005 ISSUE OF RJM SHIPS!

1. TODAY’S 10 COMMANDMENTS DECISION

“Supremely Unsatisfying”

(by Tim Ewing, Founder, Rare Jewel Magazine)

The Supreme Court today handed down its decisions on two Ten Commandments cases; easily the most anticipated decisions of its 2004 - 2005 term which recently ended.

In Van Orden v Perry the Justices voted 5 - 4 in favor to keep a Ten Commandments display on the grounds of the Texas capitol. Conversely, in McCreary v ACLU the Court held that displays inside two Kentucky courthouses were unconstitutional because they went too far in endorsing religion.

Chief Justice Rehnquist (who will likely retire before the 2005 – 2006 term begins next fall) was joined in both cases by Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Anthony Kennedy voting that the displays were constitutional.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens, David Souter, and Sandra Day O’Connor opposed the displays in both cases.

Justice Stephen Breyer was the swing vote in both cases…he

favored the Texas display and then returned to his usual position

on the liberal side of the Court to disallow the Kentucky

displays.

In the Texas case, Justice Breyer did agree with the judgment of the Court, but did not agree with the Majority Opinion of Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy. He therefore provided his own Opinion for why he nonetheless favors the Texas display, stating, “This display has stood apparently uncontested for nearly two generations.”

The clear signal, consistent with past decisions of the Court, is if a Ten Commandments monument (or similar Christian symbol or tradition) has been in place for a long period of time (e.g. forty years or more) then it stands a good chance of having become meaningless and therefore serves primarily a secular or historic purpose and not a religious purpose. Therefore it may be deemed “constitutional.” However, the more recent Kentucky displays are not.

Justice Clarence Thomas accurately sums up the inept condition of our Supreme Court by stating in his Opinion in the Texas case, “Returning to the original meaning [of the First Amendment and its Establishment Clause] would do more than simplify our task. It also would avoid the pitfalls present in the Court's current approach to such challenges…the Court's precedent attempts to avoid declaring all religious symbols and words of longstanding tradition unconstitutional, by counterfactually declaring them of little religious significance…the incoherence of the Court's decisions in this area renders the Establishment Clause impenetrable and incapable of consistent application. All told, this Court's jurisprudence leaves courts, governments, and believers and nonbelievers alike confused….”

Showing a strength of character that is a model for the kind of justices America needs, Justice Thomas similarly rebuked his Court last year after their cowardly sidestep on the Pledge of Allegiance case [see: “Pledge Case: A ‘Win’ for all the Wrong Reasons”: http://www.rarejewelmag.com/articles/view_article.asp?id=53].

Justice Thomas accurately contends that, “Much, if not all, of this would be avoided if the Court would return to the views of the Framers…a more fundamental rethinking of our Establishment Clause jurisprudence remains in order.”

Like Thomas, Justice Scalia reveals his accurate understanding of American history in his dissenting comments on the Kentucky case, “Those who wrote the Constitution believed that morality was essential to the well-being of society and that encouragement of religion was the best way to foster morality. The fact that the Founding Fathers believed devotedly that there was a God and that the unalienable rights of man were rooted in Him is clearly evidenced in their writings, from the Mayflower Compact to the Constitution itself.”

Here, Justice Scalia exposes a truth that is absolutely fundamental to the preservation and prosperity of America -- a truth that Rare Jewel Magazine continually espouses, that is, that freedom will only succeed if it is rooted in Biblical principles, guided and protected by the moral ethic of Christianity. If we disconnect freedom from its Christian mooring it will lead to licentiousness -- a license to justify all forms of immoral behavior -- which is exactly what we have witnessed in American culture, especially during the past 40 years.

Jude 4 describes for us the “godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ

our only Sovereign and Lord.”

Those of us, who, like the Founders, embrace the truth that freedom only works when rooted in Biblical principles, are reminded in James 1:25 about the “perfect law that gives freedom.” Likewise, Jesus tells us that, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32) and Paul declares in Galatians 5:1 that, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”

Scalia includes in his dissent, a direct challenge to the words of Justice Souter and the other four Justices who agreed with his Majority Opinion in the Kentucky case, “With all of this reality (and much more) staring it in the face, how can the Court possibly assert that ‘the First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between…religion and nonreligion,’ and that ‘manifesting a purpose to favor…adherence to religion generally’ is unconstitutional? Who says so? Surely not the words of the Constitution. Surely not the history and traditions that reflect our society's constant understanding of those words.”

We should not deny the truth and there is no need to walk on egg shells about why we want the Ten Commandments in our schools, in our courthouses, and in all of our government buildings: If the laws and public policy of our nation are not rooted in Biblical principles then we have violated the primary premise upon which our nation was founded, thus accelerating America’s rendezvous with ruin.

Some are content to claim victory even if it means we have to deceptively spin a position that the Ten Commandments only serve a secular and historical purpose. In other words, only if the Ten Commandments have lost their original meaning as a moral standard for our nation will they be allowed in public places. This may be a road to short term victories, but these are hollow. The only victory that will endure is one based upon the full truth of what America was created to be and what we must work to restore.

2. GUEST COMMENTARY

- “Coming Soon to a State Near You: Kansas Supreme Court Demands More Money for Schools”

(by Linda Holloway)

Earlier this month, on June 3, the Kansas Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision that lawmakers did not adequately fund education, and ordered that the Legislature must appropriate $143 million more by July 1. In addition, the court threatened to order another $853 million for the following fiscal year. Some in the Kansas mainstream press moaned that Kansas would get additional negative attention about educational affairs -- now for not properly funding its schools, in addition to the traditional refrain about the evolution debate [editor’s note: see the current issue of Rare Jewel Magazine, Jul/Aug 2005 edition, “Fighting the Ban of Creation Teaching,” pp 8-11]. In their view, as always, the culprits in both cases are conservatives: conservative legislators fight every year to hold down spending and refuse tax increases, after all, and conservative Kansas School Board members have the audacity to challenge evolution.

Since the Legislature's session ended in May, this ruling forces taxpayers to pay for a rare special session. Democrat Governor Kathleen Sebelius called legislators back to Topeka on Wednesday, June 22.

Reactions to the court's order ranged from glee (the Kansas National Education Association; most Democrat and a few Republican lawmakers) to outrage (conservative and some Republican moderate lawmakers; and conservative activists). Immediately the mainstream media pushed for raising taxes. The Wall Street Journal quoted conservative Republican State Sen Tim Huelskamp's response to the order as a “judicial shakedown of the citizens of Kansas for higher taxes.”

Gov Sebelius expressed slight dismay at the court's intrusion on the Legislature's responsibility for funding schools, but she announced she had the perfect solution -- "expanded gaming.” Among the proposals that emerged was a plan for five state-owned casinos and numerous slot machines at existing racetracks.

On the heels of this flurry of activity, the state budget director revealed a $170-million surplus due to an upturn in the economy. The newly discovered money changed the debate. Some conservatives immediately called for defiance of the court order. Some liberals and the education lobby, who had demanded tax increases, nevertheless persisted in these calls; the Governor's plan for gambling had gained traction as an alternative to tax increases. The new money source seemed to diminish fervor behind each of these solutions.

But the Governor has been a fan of gambling since her election two years ago. She also promised to increase funding for schools, and her first budget included a large tax increase. This year she challenged the Republican-dominated legislature to increase school funding but chose to exclude it from her proposed budget. She said she would wait to see what the state high court would decide. (An interesting detail that seemingly goes unnoticed in the mainstream media is that Sebelius' chief of staff is married to one of the Kansas Supreme Court justices.)

On Wednesday, June 24, the Senate Education Committee proposed an increase of $160-million, based on anticipated revenues from expanded gambling. Thursday night, June 25, the House Education Committee proposed an $11.4-million increase, but all details of the proposal are sketchy at this writing. Full Senate debate is scheduled as this is published. If the two chambers pass their respective bills, a conference committee will have to hammer out the final plan.

Republican Attorney General Phil Kline met with Republican and Democrat lawmakers to advise them of a way to keep schools on schedule for opening in August. He suggested a constitutional amendment to bar the state Supreme Court from closing schools in response to lawsuits such as this (court-stripping legislation). The court did not specifically threaten to close schools in the Fall should the lawmakers defy its order, but school closures are apparently a looming possibility.

When a court oversteps its bounds in one arena, it usually is not particular about showing concern about what its next demands will be. Separation of powers and local control are both brushed aside in judicial acitivists' decisions.

July 1 is only a few days away, so the next week or two will prove exciting for the citizens of Kansas -- at least for those who are paying attention during summer activities and vacations. The resolution of this issue will either add Kansas to the growing list of states under court-ordered school funding increases or will precipitate a constitutional showdown.

Prov 22:6 exhorts us to “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” (NIV) The state continues to make it more difficult for Christian Patriots to do this by injecting secular humanistic teaching in the public schools and now offering gambling as a solution to a perceived money problem. Gambling to fund schools casts gambling in a meritorious light, but it is a dreadful example for children.

Be ever vigilant because what is happening in Kansas may be coming to your state next.

3.  JUL/AUG 2005 ISSUE OF RJM SHIPS!

Jul/Aug 2005 issue of Rare Jewel Magazine has shipped. You won’t want to miss our latest edition, this time, focusing on Creation and evolution.

To impact our culture and restore our One Nation under God we must have a solid foundation that begins…in the Beginning -- with a clear understanding of our origin and knowledge about what true science says about Creation and evolution, and the impact of each on culture and politics.

Do not miss this issue of Rare Jewel Magazine.

Subscribe today to receive this valuable resource:

http://www.RareJewelMag.com/Subscribe