GUEST COLUMN: Is U.S. Constitution a living document?

Opinion

Discussion

June 14, 2010

Anonymous The Athens Review The Athens Daily Review Mon Jun 14, 2010, 11:52 AM CDT

Athens — Many is our country today refer to the U.S. Constitution as a “living document” without fully understanding what really was meant by those that coined the phrase.

As Christians hear the term, they may even associate it as good, since they may unconsciously think of it as parallel in concept to referring to God as being a “living God.” The two phrases could not be more drastically different.

The term was created to confuse and mislead those that do not follow the progressive agenda. What they meant is that the Constitution must be allowed to adapt to societal changes, and be interpreted as best suits the agenda of those wishing to move our nation from our founders’ intended ideals.

In June, 2009, I attended my wife’s family reunion in Maryland, and met this delightful young lady that was dating a relative. As I was visiting with her, and since she had just informed me that she would be starting college in the fall with plans to become an attorney, I asked her what field she planned to pursue. She proudly announced constitutional law, which immediately prompted me to ask her if she believed the Constitution was a “living document,” and she said yes.

At this point, I had to see if she had etched this misguided idea in stone, so I presented her with a parallel scenario. I asked if she had ever told her boyfriend that he had better not fool around on her, and if so, did he understand what she meant completely, and she said yes.

Then I said, suppose six months from now he is out with buddies, and they convince him that surely what you meant was do not be intimate, but that having a drink, holding hands and possibly even sharing a kiss or two with another young woman was a perfectly acceptable interpretation. How long after you find out, I ask, will you at the very least blast him with reminders of what your original intent was?

I also ask if she understood what her parents meant when they said to clean your room, and do it well, and again she answered “yes.”

At that point I suggested that after living with others while at college, she return home for a visit and attempt applying the college girl’s standard of neatness to her old bedroom.

She immediately understood that what I was suggesting was that the new interpretation would not match up to the original intent of cleanliness as instructed by her parents.

The point here is that whenever we want to understand what someone spoke, or in the case of our Constitution wrote, we must learn of and understand the people that put forth the directive.

We have all played the game of gossip where 10 or so people get together and start whispering in each next person’s ear, until the last person receives what turns out to be a completely corrupted message.

This is exactly what has happened to our Constitution. The last person in line has not got a clue what the original idea was. This fact can only be corrected when everyone asks the first person to restate what he said.

So if you want to know and understand the Constitution, first you need to read it, and second learn about the authors so that you can better understand their ideals and convictions.

Every author has an absolute intent as to what they write and our Constitution was written no differently.

If I still have not convinced you that the Constitution’s meaning is “static” and not “living” (evolving), then allow me one more scenario. How many of you would be willing to throw out your Bibles, and allow a minister to instruct you for the rest of your life and your children’s on what God’s intent for you is?

Sadly, this is what we have done with the Constitution. We have thrown it out, stopped reading it, and we have stopped teaching it to our children, thus allowing others that wish to fundamentally change our nation to lead where they want us to go.

I prefer to follow the ideals and Christian principles of governance as intended by George Washington, John Adams, James Madison and the many other founders of the United States.

As President John Adams said in 1798, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”

My prayer is that all Americans will wish to return to our core values and first principles, for if we continue removing God from our national conscience, Satan will gladly fill the void.

Richard Riehn is an Athens resident.

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