He has gone to his just reward . . . and here is Scalia telling us just why democracy went wrong.

[cheyanne]

There has been a lot of articles about Scalia's "originalism" but not much about his religious basis for political "originalism".

However, in an article about his views on capital punishment “God’s Justice and Ours” http://www.firstthings.com/article/2002/05/gods-justice-and-ours, Scalia explains his basis for this belief.

Divine right never died.

Scalia explains that in past times the majority of people were told that rulers gained their authority directly from god. And this was backed by a pageant of ceremonies that connected the god and the ruler. However, with democracy, it is not so self-evident to people that the state recieves its authority from god (because politicians, elections and other malarkey.)
But the state’s authority in a democracy is derived from god just as it is in a monarchy.

Divine right means that the Constitution was divinely ordained at its inception to further the aims of god through civil authority.

He believed the Constitution is not a living document, just as the bible is not a living document, and therefore society’s views of judgments and punishments should not change, but must adhere to the god’s word as given in the bible.

God has given the government the authority to judge and punish in accordance with god’s laws.

Thus because God punished with death, the state can also punish with death.

Civil rights not mentioned in the bible are not legitimate.

For example, since there is no mention of a right of abortion in the bible it can not be a legitimate civil right.

In other words, Scalia did not believe in the separation of church and state . . . He should never have been a lawyer, much less a judge.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

1. American is better without him

those that will follow and carry his message must be shunned

[politicaljunkie41910]

2. The link did not work. Although I am not a Scalia fan, I would have liked to have read the actual

passages and draw my own conclusion. Is it possible to provide a link that works, or does one have to subscribe in order to log on to the linked document?

[cheyanne]

5. Let me try again . . .

http://www.firstthings.com/article/2002/05/gods-justice-and-ours

The website is called "First Things" and the article is "God's Justice and Ours".

This link seemed to work for me . . . but here it is copied from the web site.

http://www.firstthings.com/article/2002/05/gods-justice-and-ours

let me know if it still doesn't work.

thanks.

[politicaljunkie41910]

7. That one worked. Thanks a lot. Good reading material.

[world wide wally]

3. Scalia was no hero of mine

[hifiguy]

4. Invisible sky wizards are fairy tales

Sensible people outgrow. And no basis for political organization.

[Octafish]

8. Didn't the Founders think that originally?

It's not taught much in the charter schools, but I seem to remember they separated church and state when they drew up the Constitution thing we used to have, before Scalia.

[hifiguy]

9. They were deists nearly to a man.

Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Adams definitely were. They believed god set the universe in motion and played no part in human affairs. Ol' Ben Franklin just might have been an atheist or at least a strongly doubting agnostic.

The "wall of separation" came directly from Jefferson's writings. It's a direct quote.

[KG]

6. someone wanna remind me why this guy was declared so brilliant...