Guest AuthorIt may have escaped your attention since there are attempts to amend the Florida Constitution about every other day, it seems, but a new initiative aims to enshrine the Bible and the Christian faith as the foundation of government.
Earlier this month, the secretary of state notified the state’s supervisors of elections that a petition has been filed to put an amendment on the 2014 ballot changing the religious freedom language in the Constitution, according to a report in The Ledger of Lakeland.
The amendment is sponsored by FloridaFaithAmendment.com, with L. Michael Nelis listed as chairman. Nelis, a Brandon real estate executive, is also listed as chairman of United Christians of Florida – Political Action Committee. The organization appears to be small, because its website is way out of date, stuck on candidate recommendations for the 2012 election.
This is the text of the proposed amendment: “We, the people of the State of Florida, being grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty, reaffirm the free exercise of religion and acknowledge the fundamental foundation for our society and government provided by the Holy Bible and the Christian faith. Religious freedom shall not justify non-Biblical practices inconsistent with public morals, peace and safety.”
Let’s take a look at those two sentences. The second seems to be a disclaimer to cover the legal bases just in case anyone tries to justify shenanigans in the name of religious freedom, although it makes you wonder why the authors specified “non-Biblical” practices and which ones they might have had in mind.
The first part of the proposal sounds oh-so-earnest. All it does is “acknowledge.” The point is simply to stick into the Constitution explicit references to the Bible and Christianity. From a legal point of view, there are no mandates here, although I suppose in theory it’s possible this could open the door for some legislator to try to put the Hebrew scriptures into the criminal statutes – stoning adulterers and the like.
But in case something like this makes you nervous, don’t worry. It’s clear that this proposal will never become part of the Florida Constitution. Even on the chance that this petition gets enough signatures – it would need more than 680,000 to get on the ballot – a review by the Florida Supreme Court would throw it right out because it obviously violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
If Nelis wasn’t aware of this when he and his organization started this effort, it’s safe to assume that someone has advised them of it. Which raises the question, why are we going through this charade?
Beats me. I’ve conversed with conservative Christians enough to know that they really and seriously believe America was founded on what is usually termed “Judeo-Christian” principles and would love to see that codified, but most of them also know on some level that the courts really and seriously pay attention to that pesky establishment clause. So maybe United Christians of Florida is doing this to make a public statement, to call attention to their conviction or try to convince people.
Or maybe they’re just doing it because it makes them feel better. Maybe its ultimate failure will make them feel noble, like Don Quixote. All that would be fine, if it didn’t waste public time, energy and money on points of law that have been settled for 224 years and distract us from matters on which we urgently need to find common ground. This initiative accomplishes both of those things admirably.
Conservative Christians are certainly entitled to engage in political activity, but they’d be less likely to alienate people if they’d stick to questions of policy and lay off empty gestures like this one.
