Taking every thought captive for obedience to Christ (2 Cor. 10.5)

Vision
Government
A perfect storm of debate about the future of American government is brewing, occasioned by two events, one predictable, and one untimely.

The predictable event is the current presidential campaign; the untimely, the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. At issue is the conflict of visions between progressives and conservatives, or those who espouse a “living” Constitution and those calling for a return to originalism.

Ilan Wurman is among those hoping that a form of originalism might be recovered, resulting, over time, in a dramatic curtailing of federal power and the rediscovery of the role of states in governing the nation (“The Case for Originalism,” City Journal, March 16, 2016).

If originalism were to achieve ascendancy, our federal government would, over time, be greatly transformed and reduced. Progressivists believe the Constitution provides a kind of general framework within which jurists may interpret cases according to the temper and needs of the times. Progressivists have held sway since the fifties, with some modest braking of their pell mell activism since the Reagan years.

Originalists, as Mr. Wurman explains, insist that the Constitution should be interpreted in terms of the public meaning intended by the Founders. That meaning was forged in an intellectual environment in which Biblical ideas and Biblical Law were very much part of the way people thought and lived, as numerous scholars admit. “Most Revolutionary-era Americans,” explains Barry Alan Shain (The Myth of American Individualism), “believed it was the legitimate and necessary role of local religious, familial, social, and governmental forces to limit, reform, and shape the sinful individual.” Similarly, Lorraine Smith Pangle and Thomas L. Pangle comment on the powerful role of the “Puritan ethos in shaping the distinctive conception of republican politics that underlies the American Constitution” (The Learning of Liberty).

The Biblical worldview was not the only mindset guiding the Founders as they crafted the Constitution, but it constituted a dominant motif in how they thought about the world. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to return to an originalist view of the Constitution in an intellectual, social, and cultural environment where Biblical thinking and living are on the decline.

The prospects for returning to originalism are, I suspect, meager. The question is, at base, neither political nor juridical; it is, rather, a matter of the disposition of the heart – a question of worldview.

Originalism tethers ultimately to the pier of God’s Law, and since not even the Christian community in America has much regard for that corpus, it is unlikely the rest of the country will settle for anything less than achieving greater distance from Law as taught by God and greater dependence on law as made up by men according to the spiritus mundi.

A dramatic and widespread change of heart in America, however, might tilt the debate in a different direction, such as has been realized in the past through revivals and awakenings.

Merely achieving a President and Supreme Court dedicated to some form of originalism will not roll back the tide of secular, materialist, narcissistic, and progressive thinking which is inundating the American social and cultural landscape. Of course, Christians must engage every available means – cultural, political, and otherwise – to achieve a social praxis more in line with Biblical teaching.

But unless the people of this great nation have a change of heart about life and their role in it, nothing that happens during the coming year will check the current drift of the nation. The perfect storm of presidential campaigning and Supreme Court appointments will come and go, and nothing will have changed.

We need revival, which comes when believers in Christ begin to pray earnestly and continuously for it.

For reflection
1.  How well do you understand the difference between originalism and progressivism? Should you be aware of this difference?

2.  Do you agree that the present social, intellectual, and moral climate in America would not support a return to originalism? Why or why not?

3.  What is your duty as a Christian in seeking the Lord for revival?

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The Week features insights from a wide range of topics and issues, with a view to equipping the followers of Christ to take every thought captive for Jesus. Please prayerfully consider supporting The Fellowship of Ailbe by sending a gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Drive, Essex Junction, VT 05452.