The Right's full-court press to control the Supreme Court

Why is it that people who call themselves his followers engage in it so readily?


Christ came to set us free. When the Religious Right presses court in politics, the goal is not to liberate people as much as it is to make people behave in a manner that they consider acceptable (no gay marriage, no foul language, no obscenity, and so on). Controlling people is not what Christ is about. 

Belief.net has a well-written article by Marci Hamilton concerning the push from the Religious Right to determine the next Supreme Court appointment now that Sandra Day O'Connor has announced her retirement. Hamilton has articulated fairly well one of my chief concerns with the insistence of the Religious Right that nominees conform to a narrowly defined list of behaviors, beliefs and attitudes, without exception.

For that matter Christianity Today has another article, about Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and how James Dobson and others on the Right have accused him of not being insufficiently pro-life. The ostensibly pro-choice positions they are taking issue with are positions Gonzalez has taken based on his understanding of the law, rather than on his personal beliefs. 

That is, of course, how our government is supposed to work. Issuing rulings based on personal beliefs  and not upon the rule of law is what the Right calls "legislating from the bench" and takes a good deal of umbrage at.