PaulPisces Loc: San Francisco

Vernon - I always appreciate that you do not hold back on your opinions!
And, seeing as how most statues seem to be either carved from marble or cast in bronze, I have a hard time imagining anyone burning them.

But I do wish you would debate the topic. I've found that's usually the best way for us all to learn from one another.

PLT Sarge Loc: Alabama

Thank you, whit. Finally a post with a sincere question, hoping for sincere response. I believe in the Constitution. The three forms of government. Congress makes laws. The Judiciary enforces those laws. The Executive protects and defends the nation. Simple. I won't go into specific programs. But will say that more power should be given back to the States.

rjoeholl

Paul, our written laws say EXACTLY what the ten commandments say. It's just that the government took a few thousand books to say it.

SGM B Loc: TEXAS but live in Alabama now

I agree completely with what you have spelled out here - sounds like a very good solution to most of our country's problems.
The money our govt fritters away, giving it to countries that hate us could be better spent right here at home.

SGM B out.

PaulPisces Loc: San Francisco

I have to disagree with you. Don't get me wrong. The 10 Commandments are guidelines for a decent life, but they are mostly spiritual in nature and most of them have nothing to do with civil law.

1 - You shall have no other gods before Me..................................Hardly the business of civil government, especially considering the First Amendment
2 - You shall not make idols.......................................................Good advice, but again, the purview of Religion, not the Federal Government
3 - You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.........See above
4 - Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.............................Why is it the government's business to many anything holy at all? Holy is a religious connotation, not a legal one.
5 - Honor your father and your mother.........................................I'm unclear where this appears in our laws. Perhaps as it pertains to legal adulthood at 18?
6 - You shall not murder.............................................................This is a universal imperative, but I will give it to you anyway
7 - You shall not commit adultery.................................................Again, good advice, but I am unaware of a any laws around this.
8 - You shall not steal.................................................................See # 6
9 - You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor................See # 6 again
10 - You shall not covet...............................................................Hardly a legal precept. Covetousness is pretty much the engine of our economy. We are a consumer economy, and if
people do not desire stuff then our country would collapse

Bad Bob Loc: Virginia

Now how many of the 10 has your God/King broken?

vrider

Way to go Maryjane! I agree 100% with everything you wrote.

PaulPisces Loc: San Francisco

Just wondering, who do you think my God/King is?
Plus wondering how your question is relevant in any way to my reply to rjoeholl.

GmanTerry

I want the government to do what the Constitution says to do. Stop the over-reaching and return the country to the values we enjoyed in the era before Hippie ideas became the goal. Personal responsibility, regulated borders, welfare as a safety net not as a career goal. Everyone speaking the same language. Helping one another like we did on the farm when I was young. An adhesive society instead of a repulsive society. It is all laid out in the Constitution which does not seem to be taught in schools any longer. And foremost, we don't want a secret government that spies on the entire population and an out of control law enforcement branch of government acting like Secret Police. I want honest elections where illegals are not allowed to vote and the Secret Police don't influence the outcome. That's just a start.

Semper Fi

bahmer

Please use the quote reply tag when you respond to someone here on OPP. The quote reply tag is between the reply tag and report issue tag as I have shown here. | Reply | Quote Reply | Report Issue. If you use the quote reply tag that brings in the other persons name and quote so all on here will know to whom you are responding as well as the subject matter as well. We have all been told about this at one time or another and so do not take offense we have all done it. Thank you.

bahmer

Amen and Amen

Highlander66 Loc: Illinois

I want term limits and when a politician is out of office they receive nothing further. No retirement no pension nothing. They return to the private sector and have to live under the laws they enact for the rest of us

AmChistPat651

ON ITS surface, the question posited above could for some, to be a daunting one. However, given the underlying tone I feel it relatively important to respond as succinctly and directly as possible.
I have to believe that anyone who seeks the knowledge of another must in his/her own mind have an opinion and since I am quite willing to share my point of view, I feel it incumbent upon the inquirer to share in kind. It is my hope, as I follow-up that this would indeed be the case.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (c. 106-43 B.C.) was the great defender of the Roman republic and a master of oratory. The author of several books on politics, philosophy, and rhetoric, he was the first to speak of natural law as a moral or political law, and was an important influence on our great nation's Founders.
Around 54-51 B.C. he wrote: "true law is right reason, consonant with nature, spread through all people. It is consonant and eternal; it summons to duty by its orders, it deters from crime by its prohibitions. Its orders and prohibitions to good people are never given in vain; but it does not move the wicked by these orders or prohibitions. It is wrong to pass laws obviating this law; it is not permitted to abrogate any of it; it cannot be totally repealed. We cannot be released from this law by the senate or the people, and it needs no exegete or interpreter like Sextus Aelius. There will not be one law at Rome and another at Athens, one now and another later; but all nations at all times will be bound by this one eternal and unchangeable law, and God will be one common Master and General (so to speak) of all people. He is the Author, Expounder and Mover of this law; and the person who does not obey Him will be in exile from himself. Insofar as he scorns his nature as a human being, by this very fact he will pay the greatest penalty, even if he escapes all the other things that are generally recognized as punishments...." (Ref. "On the Commonwealth," in James E.G. Zetel, ed., Cambridge University Press, 1999; 71-72).
So fifty-five delegates from twelve states (Rhode Island declined to participate) traveled to Philadelphia to attend the Constitutional Convention, which began in May 1787. They quickly scrapped the existing Articles of Confederation, and after four long months they concluded their business by adopting a new frame of government. On September 17th, 39 delegates signed what we hold today, the Constitution of the United States of America. It was nine months before the requisite nine-states ratified this Constitution, putting it into effect. The 13th state ratified it in 1790, and subsequently it has been ratified twenty-seven times.
At this point, I would note that pastors and ministers were among the highest educated citizens in the American colonies, and often addressed politics from the pulpit. As a source of reference for my perspective here, I should like to write excerpts from Gad Hitchcock (1718-1803), which was delivered in the presence of General Thomas Gage, the British military governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Basically it decries monarchical rule and celebrates the idea of the consent of the governed, appealing to reason as well as revelation: "....This form of government, in the opinion of subjects and strangers, is happily calculated for the preservation of the Bill of Rights and Liberties of mankind..." "In such a government, rulers have their distinct powers assigned to them by the PEOPLE, who are the ONLY SOURCE of civil authority on earth, with the view of having them exercised for the public advantage, and in proportion as worthy end of their investiture is kept in sight, and prosecuted, the bands of society are strengthened, and its interests promoted...." It goes on to say, "Rulers are under the most sacred ties to consult the good of society....." "For the promotion of this valuable end, they are ORDAINED OF GOD, and clothed with authority by men..."
So in an ideal society, (to my belief), in a state of nature men are equal, exactly on a par in regard to authority; each one is a law to himself, having the law of God, the sole rule of conduct, written on each man's heart. So I further believe that mental endowments, though excellent qualifications for rulers, should use those attributes in the advice, persuasion and to do good proportionate to the degrees of each, yet do not give any antecedent right to the exercise of authority without a moral obligation from the Supreme Author and Finisher.
So in contemplating your question, I could go much deeper into what to me would be far from utopian, but at least ideal in the sense that we must be governed and the rule of law exercised, by stating unequivocally, that America needs only to return to the Founding Father's ideals for a Christian nation and once again, take up the values and principles of the Constitution as set forth under the guidance and grace of Almighty God.
Today, I believe that Christ is standing outside of Washington D.C. knocking. His knocking is good news. We know that Christ is all powerful and can walk through any door so why does He not just enter into the hearts of every man?
The answer is in the Word of God...Fellowship cannot be forced. Communion cannot be commanded. Christ cannot have fellowship with us by breaking down the door. He seeks a deeper fellowship with us than we do with Him.
Let's put God back in the hearts and minds of Congress, the legislature, the Supreme Court, the state Capitals, and the city councils and schools. God Bess America (again)!

bahmer

They should have to live under those laws while in office as well don't you think.

AmChistPat651

INDEED!!