I recently watched a very interesting exchange between CNN’s Chris Cuomo and Roy Moore, chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. The two men were debating several issues surrounding the legality and constitutionality of marriage between homosexuals. Moore says marriage is a state’s rights issue (10th Amendment) and Cuomo says it is a matter of “equal protection” (14th Amendment). There are competing federal appellate court decisions on both sides and so the United States Supreme Court will decide in June.
Cuomo’s charge against Moore was that he was basing his views on his religious beliefs and not the Constitution. Moore agreed his view squared with the Bible’s, but rejected the accusation he was basing his views of the law based (solely) on the Bible. He said that marriage is not mentioned in the Constitution and therefore -- based on the 10th Amendment -- it should be left up to the states. The 10th Amendment reads: “The powers not delegated to the United States (federal government) by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
But in the course of the back and forth, Cuomo, said this: “Our laws do not come from God, Your Honor, and you know that. They come from man.”
Cuomo is correct in the sense that God does dictate our laws as He did the Ten Commandments. However, Cuomo could not be more wrong when he later declared that our rights come from man.
As smart as Cuomo may be, it’s hard to believe CNN would have a state supreme court justice interviewed by someone who is apparently ignorant of perhaps the most famous quotation from our Founding Fathers, which comes from the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Not sure what part of “endowed by their Creator” Cuomo doesn’t understand.
But the two continued:
MOORE: Well, let me ask you one question. Let me ask you one question, Chris. Is the Declaration of Independence law?
CUOMO: You would call it organic law as a basis for future laws off of it?
MOORE: I would call it the organic law because the United States code calls it organic law. It is organic law because the law of this country calls it the organic law of our country (which) means (it tells us) where our rights come from. And if they come from there, men can't take --
CUOMO: Our rights do not come from God. That's your faith. That's my faith. But that's not our country. Our laws come from collective agreement and compromise.
MOORE: It's not a matter of faith, sir; it's a matter of organic law, which states we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are held equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And the only role of government as stated in the next sentence, is to secure those rights for us. When government starts taking those rights away from us, then it's not securing it for us; it is violating the whole purpose of government.”
Our Founding Fathers understood the importance of acknowledging God. That is why they purposefully used the word “inalienable” which means “impossible to take away or give up.” The specialness of America’s system of government (and our freedom) is not to be taken for granted. As President Ronald Reagan said: “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”