2008
Episode
16
The
Holy Trinity Amendments
HOLY TRINITY
The individual Trinity Amendment proposals had
been kicking around for years, getting nowhere
but dusty. Republican administrations would drag
various of them out whenever they needed to
rouse their knuckle-draggers. For Reagan, it had
been prayer in schools. Gar Reynolds figured
there had always been prayer in schools; during
every snap quiz and in the final two minutes of
each tight game. But the Moral Majority, which
was flying high at the time, blatantly intimidated
local officials and school superintendents with
charges they were encouraging immorality if students
weren’t allowed to begin and end their school
days with group prayer.
Somehow, these god-thugs believed, that simply
displaying the Ten Commandments in courthouses
and parks would presumably encourage a few more
"thou shalts" and a few less "covets" and magically
reestablish morality in society. They couldn’t
understand how “right-minded people” could possibly
object to having the basic tenants of someone
else's religion shoved in their faces in buildings they
helped pay for.
Reynolds believed that unless human nature had
changed in the last week, morality was the stuff
you're suppose to learn at home. He had attended
Catholic grade and high schools in Cedar Rapids.
They had your crucifixes and your holy water and
your statues of saints; Mass every morning and
prayers four times a day; the whole snapped mackerel.
And there wasn't an iota of moral rectitude
that wasn't already there or not there depending
on what his classmates brought with them.
Discipline, academics, personal attention. You
bet! Morality? Unhuh. If morality couldn't even be
imposed by the good nuns scaring the bejesus out
of students in a traditional Catholic school in the
‘50s, how did these idiots propose some rote mumblings
and dusty wall plaques were going to save
America today?
For Bush I, it was the anti-flag burning amendment,
one of the most contrived controversies and
blatant political exploitations Reynolds had witnessed
in the past 40 years; a no-brainer, feel-good
proposition for politicians, since it was favored
by a vast majority of voters. Amendment proponents
claim they support freedom of speech, but insist
that speech which is reprehensible, objectionable
or simply disturbing to the community must be
banned or at least regulated. Hey guys, Reynolds
thought, that's what free speech is! Nobody has
to protect speech that everyone likes.
Ironically, the majority of American flags aren't
even made in America. Reynolds could imagine the
screaming from all those free trade Congressmen
if a clause requiring flags be made domestically
was to be attached to the amendment. He wondered
just how “patriotic” they’d be then. Frankly,
Reynolds thought, he found the honest, if misdirected,
passion of the occasional flag burner a lot
less cynical than the flag lapel pins so many
politicians felt compelled to wear to demonstrate
they’re loyal red-blooded patriots.
For Bush II, it was the ban on gay marriage. Following,
the Supreme Court's 2003 blockbuster
gay rights decision that traditional morality
was no justification for making legal distinctions among
the sexual behaviors of consenting adults, the
right-wing went apoplectic. It correctly anticipated
that gays and lesbians would use the decision
to advance their long-smoldering desire to legitimatize
gay unions through legal marriage. The decision
set off another round of Court bashing and shirt
renting by conservatives similar to the furor
caused by “Roe v. Wade.” Larry Laurer predicted
at the time; "if people have no right to regulate
sexuality, then ultimately marriage and the
welfare of coming generations is in peril." Huh?
Reynolds often thought it would be refreshing if
these numbskulls would be as outraged over the
real moral perils for future generations, such
as corporate scum balls, political crooks and
environmental scourges, as they are over two guys
having sex in their own bedroom. He had tried,
but failed, to comprehend how some people could
be so emotionally, psychologically and intellectually
insecure that how other people acted in private
could so infuriate them.
The 800-pound gorilla in the culture wars was still
the anti-abortion amendment. Conservatives had
given up on the Supreme Court. Their strategy
for years had been to get the “fifth vote” counting on
Republican presidents to name justices who would
provide the majority needed to overthrow Roe.
With Bush’s appointments of two conservatives
to the Court, they were sure they had won the day.
The pro-life Family Defense Council found just
the right test case and began the process of advancing
it through the lower courts. Then at the moment
that was to be their expected triumph, the Supremes
once again dashed their hopes, as Justice Kennedy,
a previous “count on” vote joined a five member
majority to reject their plea, thereby upholding
Roe. Kennedy, similar to Justice O'Connor, had long
acted like a rocker on a knife blade between the
conservative strict constructionists and the liberal
judicial activists. They defended Constitutional
principles and legal precedents, but were not married
to the past, and he determined, as he had in the
Lawrence v. Texas gay rights case, that sectarian
morality cannot be applied to the general public.
Ironically, the same Supreme Court right-wing activists
hated so much had given them an excellent
opportunity to introduce values into the classroom
through courses on comparative religions and
moral history. Because the curricula must provide
broad overviews of belief systems, the oxygen
deficient Evangelicals continued to berate them
in favor of superficial gestures such as public displays
of faith rather than expose their own religious
assumptions to comparison. Reynolds believed that
a substantial infusion of historical and universal
human values into schools from Confucius to Gandhi
to Billy Graham would be much more productive
in countering the Siren calls of soulless sex, violence
and modernity kids hear daily than insisting that
everyone recite some rote 60 second prayer.
No wonder there's a cultural divide in America,
Reynolds thought. How do you reason with people
who rely on mysticism? You say: "Hey! you're free
to not associate with gays and lesbians; to not
have abortions; to pray in school until your eyes
bulge out as long as it's to yourself."
Their circuitous retort: "They know exactly what
God expects of us. Why? Because it’s written in
the Bible. How do they know the Bible is correct?
Because it’s the Word of God. How do they know
it’s the Word of God. Because it’s written in
the Bible. How do they know the Bible is correct?
Because it’s the Word….”
Next in "Saecila:" Mercedes Brown
by Martin
Gresko
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CONTACT Martin Gresko at VGABONSUN@hotmail.com
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