Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Iowa Judicial Retention

My take on the upcoming vote for judicial retention of the Supreme Court judges in Iowa. This was a response to an email discussion, but summarizes my reasoning around this issue and basic response to the objections I've heard. While you could claim that I'm taking some of these scripture passages out of context they reflect a concise, but rough, idea of the basis for my thinking.

All three Supreme Court judges voted the unanimously on the homosexual “marriage” opinion last year.
I agree that we should vote NO on retention of these judges because of the procedural issue of “legislating form the bench”. More importantly for me is that we vote NO because of their vote on the moral issue of the ruling. We, as Christians, should vote based on our world view. That being a Biblical world view, based on God’s law being the highest, over-riding law. When judges, end even elected officials, make rulings that are so directly against God’s law, we will have injustice in the land.
Deuteronomy 16:18-20, “appoint judges… and they shall judge the people fairly. … Follow justice and justice alone…”
Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
This issue isn’t about the objections that many people claim. Some say we shouldn’t vote them all out because we’d have to start from scratch, but 1 Corinthians 6:4 says, “…appoint as judges even men of little account in the church!”

It’s not about changing the process; it’s not about sending a message to other judges;
it’s about the specific ungodly actions and ruling of these judges according to God’s standard. Using them to send a message to others would be just as unjust as the actions they took. We’re holding them accountable for their actions, within the existing process.

God defines what marriage is, the civil government can’t re-define it; they can only recognize and reward it.