August 14, 2005

JS2 Live Blog

Editor's Note: This live-blog is posted in reverse chronological order. Scroll to the bottom for the beginning, and read each time-stamped section scolling up. All times are p.m., central.

7:27: Rebecca St. James is singing to close the event. I listened pretty hard to most of the proceedings and heard not a single call for establishment of a right-wing Christian theocracy in Washington D.C. I'm pretty sure the Left heard it differently, though, and I'll be linking to some of their blog coverage in the next few days.

7:20 - Rev. Ted Haggard of the National Association of Evangelicals is talking now about the separation of church and state.

"What that means is that the state can not establish a church or prevent the free exercise of religion," Haggard said, adding that the constitutional clause called the "separation of church and state" does not mean that "churches and synagogues and mosques must remain silent," Haggard says. "It actually means the opposite."

7:15 - I just stopped by the Nashville bloggers table. They've commandeered a whole box of two dozen Shipley's donuts. I took two. Meanwhile, I've realized that live-blogging isn't my strong suit. I can't listen, analyze and write that fast - at least not well. And I'm not sure it's the best use of the blog medium. More on that later.

7:06 - Phyllis Schlafly is speaking now and she just mentioned the Kelo decision, at least the third speaker to do so by my count. Remember, folks, this fight to reign in the activist judiciary and restore it to its proper role of interpreting law rather than making it is about a whole host of issues, not just gay marriage and abortion. A judiciary that can empower people to kill babies can empower government to take your property. And a government that can take your property can take your rights too.

7:00 - Jett Williams just sang my favorite old country song, Hank Williams Sr.'s I Saw the Light. You can't have a big event in Nashville without a country song. It's a law, I'm pretty sure.

6:55 - Zell Miller rocks the house.

6:45 - Bill Donohue, president of The Catholic League, is speaking. He just criticized the recent Kelo decision, which extended the power of government to seize private property, as injust as it now allows government to take your property and give it to a rich developer so the rich developer can get richer.

It's the second mention of Kelo tonight - good evidence that Justice Sunday 2 isn't just about social issues such as abortion and gay marriage, but about pushing for a federal judiciary that interprets the constitution rather than legislates from the bench.

(Donahue also touched on abortion and other social issues, and made common cause with evangelical Christians while criticizing Catholic politicians like Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Mario Cuomo for being pro-abortion.)

6:39 p.m. - I have to say I agree with Joe Carter when he wrote this on his JS2 live-blog about an hour ago:

After thirty years as an American evangelical you’d think I’d be used to seeing an American flag in the church. But while I respect the symbol of our country, I’ve never been comfortable with an object that inspires patriotism sharing the stage with the symbol of our Savior’s sacrifice. So I feel a bit uneasy seeing the two flags flanking a cross with a plaster statue of the Ten Commandments centered in front, used as the backdrop for the speakers. The cross is sufficient for salvation. Why is it not sufficient for the church?

The lyrics of the contemporary Christian song Bless the Lord are relevant here:

I tremble at Your presence
shaken by the truth that You are God
No deed will bring You pleasure
or a word add a measure
to who You are

I lift my heart in worship
shaken by the truth that You are God
Silenced by the virtue,
surrendered and in awe of who You are

CHORUS:
Bless the Lord
with all that's in me,
Bless the Lord
May kingdoms fall and rulers crawl
before Your throne

Too often, unfortunately, the Supreme Court acts as if it think it is.

Chuck Colson, founder and chairman of Prison Fellowship Ministries, is speaking. I was too busy editing photos to take notes, but Ed Morrissey got the gist of it.

Another photo from outside:

I agree with this woman's sign. We should never ever have another back-alley abortion performed with a coat-hanger. But if that's wrong, how does replacing the coat hangar with a doctor's tools and the alley with an operating room make it morally acceptable?

6:31 - Spotted in the audience: U.S. Senate candidates Ed Bryant and Van Hilleary. At least I think it was Hilleary.

6:26 - Tom Delay is speaking. "The constitution is a guarantor of rights. ... The constitution is not a vehicle for the interpretive manipulation of the public will." The stuff represented by the
"..." was even better, but I can't type as fast as my short-term memory can forget stuff. Oh for a transcript...

Here's a couple pictures I took outside JS2 just before the telecast began. About two dozen protestors gathered across the street from Two Rivers Baptist Church. The protestors seemed concerned about two issues - the mixing of religion and state, and keeping the currently unfettered right to kill unborn babies.

There's always a man-hating poster at a left-wing protest. Ed Morrissey has some additional thoughts about it.

The guy on the left seems to want religious people to stay out of politics, though I bet if you asked him he wouldn't mind Left-wing religious people staying involved in politics. The lady on the right holding the "Pro-Child/Pro-Choice" sign probably never looked at her own kids and said, "I love you, buddyboo, but I'm so glad I had the right to kill you if I wanted to!"

6:13 p.m. - Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson is speaking via video tape, and describing the current status of the judiciary in America as an "oligarchy."

Dobson also mentions the Supreme Court's recent Kelo decision. Joe Carter noticed the Kelo mention too, and he is absolutely right when he says the Kelo case "is about justice and a prime example of why judicial tyranny violates the biblical concept of justice."

6:05 p.m. - Tim Daly, the new president of Focus on the Family: "The framers did not intend for the courts to have absolute power over us." He's right about that. The constitution was written to limit the power of government to the greatest extent possible, in order to provide the people the most freedom possible within a framework of laws.

6:03 p.m. - Tony Perkins, president, Family Research Council: "We do not claim the right to speak for every American. But we do claim the right to speak."

6 p.m. - Justice Sunday 2 is underway.