Lux Lucet

As the social justice jihad on Alabama Senatorial candidate Judge Roy Moore builds to its predictable ear splitting crescendo, it seemed goo to me to take some time to analyze at least some of the arguments that have been brought against him by “progressive” left.

I’ve been clipping online articles on the whole Roy Moore dustup at a furious pace over the past few days. But even at that, I’m sure that there are plenty of relevant posts yet unread and unclipped by me. So all I can say is a “thank you, thank you” to the fine folks at http://www.al.com who posted a wonderful article (sarcasm alert) on their website that, so far as I can tell, managed to take just about every whackadoo, SJW argument against Roy Moore and distill them into a single post. No small feat, that.

The post to which I refer is titled Ministers sign letter saying Roy Moore ‘not fit for office’. The article begins by noting, “A group of 59 progressive Christian ministers, more than half from mainline Protestant denominations, signed a letter released today calling U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore ‘not fit for office.’ ” For my part, I consider any sentence containing the words “progressive,” “Christian,” and “mainline Protestant” to be a sort of trigger warning to alert me that what’s coming is almost certainly going to be a lot of touchy-feely, social just warriory nonsense. As it turns out, I was neither surprised nor disappointed by the collective wisdom on display.

The article, quite helpfully, contains the full text of said letter, which I have also included below along with my annotations bolded and in brackets.

Under ordinary circumstances, we clergy refrain from speaking directly about political candidates, and over speak to issues.  But these are not ordinary circumstances. But these are not ordinary circumstances. [John Robbins noted in, I believe, one of his lectures that most philosophical systems go wrong at the very beginning. The same holds true for letters by progressive clergy.  Of the sixty names listed as signers of the document (the headline says ’59 progressive clergy, so apparently one of the signatories is not considered a minister) it appears that 23 are women.  As the Bible clearly prohibits women from exercising authority over men or taking the roles of elder and deacon, over one third of the signatories have no business whatsoever serving in their given roles simply by virtue of their sex alone, not to mention any other shortcomings they may have that would disqualify them.  Take, for example, the picture that accompanies the post on alabama.com.  Not only is one of the so-called a woman by the name of Jennifer Sanders, she’s an open lesbian as this article makes clear.  Such open and obvious problems are, by themselves, enough for any Christian to stop reading the letter it right here.  But it gets worse.  And in the interest of exposing further error, I shall continue.] 

Even before the recent allegations of sexual abuse, Roy Moore demonstrated that he was not fit for office, and that his extremist values and actions are not consistent with traditional Christian values or good Christian character. [This letter, as is the case with many of the ritual denunciations of Moore by various and sundry members of the SJW crowd, is long on name calling and short on specifics. The authors wax indignant about Moore’s supposed “extremist values and actions” but provide not so much as a single quote, footnote or link to back up their case against him.] He and politicians like him have cynically used Christianity for their own goals. [There’s a saying out there attributed to Vladimir Lenin that runs something like, “Always accuse your victim of what you do.” There seems to be some dispute over whether Lenin actually said that, but the word “cynically,” rather than fitting the words and actions of Roy Moore, actually applies quite well to the activities of the prog ministers who seek to denounce him. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning of “cynical” as “Resembling the cynic philosophers in contempt of pleasure, churlishness, or disposition to find fault…surly…misanthropic” To behave cynically is to act in such a manner. And from my observations, there is no group of people in all the world more given to churlishness, fault finding and surly behavior than the progs, who have graced our fair land with absurd charges such as misgendering, cultural appropriation, and microaggresion, all which are seen as good reason for a shrieking SJW mob to righteously demand the head of the pathetic unfortunate who dared cross their arbitrary and ever shifting boundaries. Such people have managed to make civilized political discourse nearly impossible and turned what were once simple social interactions into minefields. Yet these people have the gall to call Roy Moore cynical. Puleeze!] But Roy Moore does not speak for Christianity, and he acts in ways that are contrary to our faith. [Hmm, I wonder what’s coming next. Let’s see.]

Christianity affirms God’s love for the neighbor and care for the most vulnerable in society : the widow, the foreigner, and the orphan. But he has denigrated people from other countries and other faiths. He opposes the expansion of Medicaid which would provide basic healthcare for over 400,000 poor and working poor Alabamians. [In other words, Roy Moore isn’t a socialist and who thinks that Obamacare is the most awesome thing since the great society. Instead he believes in limited, Constitutional government and respects private property. Horrors!] He seeks to deny the most basic civil rights of our fellow citizens. [Such as what, the right of same-sex couples to marry? A “right” invented out of whole cloth in the life span of most high school seniors.] studentsHe has used racial slurs and casually referred to state-sponsored violence against lesbian and gay families. [Apart from any quotes of specific examples, it’s hard not to see these comments as a smear job, a sort of rhetorical drive by shooting where the perps spray bullets and hightail it out of there before they can be identified. To charge a man with racism is a serious thing and, therefore should never been done lightly. Moore’s been a public figure for over thirty years, so it shouldn’t be hard to find the appropriate quotes. Surely there are quotes, right? I mean, righteous prog ministers wouldn’t just make stuff up, would they? ] He has sought to deny children without parents access to loving families on the basis of sexual orientation. [Outrageous! Roy Moore hates kids so much that he refuses to subject them to the tender mercies of homosexuals. But seriously, it’s the prog “ministers,” not Roy Moore, who are the problem. Putting darkness for light, they call Moore’s act of real mercy in standing up for helpless children evil, all while praising as good vile acts of sodomy. The prophet Isaiah pronounced woe on such men.]
Kindness and justice toward widows, orphans, and foreigners are priorities in the Bible but they are not priorities for him. [These wolves in sheep’s clothing have no idea what they’re even talking about.]

Christianity thrives in religious freedom from government interference, and a government impartial toward people of all faith traditions. But instead he has sought to entangle government with religion. He has preached vehemently against Islamic religious law but he has sought government affirmation of his religious extremism and nationalism. [As the apostle Paul teaches in Romans 13, civil magistrates have two jobs: 1) punish evildoers, and 2) praise the good. The second of these, praise the good, is best understood as passing and enforcing civil laws consistent with the moral law of God as revealed in Scripture. Contrary to what the ACLU types would have us believe, the First Amendment doesn’t mean that religion, understood as Christianity, has no say in the governing of our nation, only that the federal government has no authority to establish a national church.] He has claimed civil rights only apply to Christians. [Actually, he didn’t. As Harry Browne, former Libertarian presidential candidate, noted, “The Constitution doesn’t apply to Americans, it doesn’t apply to citizens, it doesn’t even apply to ‘people.’ It applies to the federal government. The body of the Constitution tells the federal government what it is allowed to do…The Bill of Rights tells the federal government what it is not allowed to do.” Just think about the wording of the First Amendment for a moment and you’ll see Browne is right. What’s it say? “Congress shall pass no law…” Although the progs don’t tell us to which of Moore’s statements they object, they likely mean Moore’s 2014 statements, in which he defined “religion” as used in the Constitution, to mean only the worship of the creator God. Moore went on to correctly deny that Buddah or Allah created us. This appears to mean by implication that the First Amendment does not prohibit Congress from suppressing Islam or Buddhism. When pressed on this, Moore denied that this is what he meant. Moore seems to me to be inconsistent on this point. For a similar but more consistent take, see John Robbins’ remarks in his essay Christians and the Civil War. There, Robbins states that the Tennessee Constitution of 1796 had a provision which read ” ‘No person who denies the being of God or a future state of rewards and punishments shall hold any office in the civil department of this state.’ This provision makes it clear what the term ‘religious test’ means in both the Tennessee and U.S. Constitutions: It means denominational test, not doctrinal test.” If Robbins understanding of the original meaning of “religious test” is correct, then the term ‘religion’ referred to in the First Amendment of the US Constitution does, in fact, refer only to the worship of the creator God of the Bible, meaning that the worship of Allah, unlike Christianity, does not enjoy Constitutional protection.]

Christianity rejoices in the truth and affirms the rights of abuse survivors to tell their stories without silencing. Christianity abhors sexual coercion and violence. We acknowledge that many people have been victims of sexual assault and abuse in our own places of worship. Clergy misconduct has done real and lasting harm, both physically and spiritually. We repudiate the actions of religious and political leaders like Roy Moore who have sought to silence, to cover up, and to be complicit in the sexual abuse. These actions reopen the wounds of anyone who has been abused by leaders who should have been committed to compassion, to justice, and to healing God’s world. [This is an example of misapplying the truth. Yes, we can agree with the progs that “Christianity abhors sexual coercion and violence.” But they err when arguing that Roy Moore has “sought to silence, to cover up, and to be complicit in…sexual abuse.” Apparently this is a reference to the recent allegations that he sexually assaulted two teenagers in 1979. These allegations are unproven and unprovable. What is more, information has come to light that has cast serious doubt on the veracity of the alleged victims stories, see here and here.]

We clergy write and sign this letter not as representatives of our own congregations but as individual faith leaders compelled by conscience to speak. Our intent is not to tell anyone how to vote, [Nonsense. This entire letter is about telling people how to vote. Doubletalk of this sort is the hallmark those who seek to mislead others about their intentions.] but to urge the people of Alabama to vote their conscience, regardless of political affiliation. It is our belief that in light of Roy Moore’s extremist beliefs, his patterns of behavior, and the recent allegations against him, no person of faith can, in good conscience, support him or his religious nationalism. [They couldn’t be more wrong. Judge Moore is exactly the kind of man whom Christians – not generically religious persons; after all, Satanists are religious persons, and would find it impossible to square support of Roy Moore with their beliefs – can and should support. He has lost his job, not once, but twice, for taking a stand for the law of God and for the Constitution.] He has done harm to our government; he has done harm to our Christian witness; and he has done harm to vulnerable people. [On the contrary, it is progressive liberals, socialists, and LGBTQ advocates who have managed to wreck society. The inmates have run the asylum for so long they think it’s normal.]

We do not make this statement lightly. We do so with much prayer and discernment. [These confused men and women lack the very quality in which they boast, discernment. This is a sign of God’s judgment upon them. “Behold I will fill all the inhabitants of this land…with drunkenness! And I will dash them one against another…I will no more spare nor have mercy, but will destroy them” Jeremiah 13.] We believe no follower of Jesus Christ should be silent while the words of our Lord and Savior are perverted for partisan power, while our Bible is appropriated as a weapon for a false “culture war,” and while the name of our God is blasphemed by the hypocrisy of those who claim the name of Christ. [All true statements considered just on their own, but when viewed in the context of the antichristian world view of these supposed ministers, it is false. The truth or falsehood of a given statement rests on the system of thought, the philosophical context, in which it is placed.]

Roy Moore has endured a hellish past two weeks, being subjected to, in my opinion one of the most appalling propaganda campaigns any candidate in recent American history, and much of that from his own party to boot. I have followed Moore’s career only from afar, so I can’t claim the kind of familiarity with him that Alabama voters have. But I do know that he’s twice lost his job for daring to stand on the right side of a controversial issue. Once for his stance on the Ten Commandments, and then again more recently for challenging the so-called same-sex marriage ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States. Not many men would be willing to do that. Contrary to the foolish fifty nine clergymen, Roy Moore is most certainly fit for office. More than that, he is, in my opinion, just the sort of man America needs in the Senate.