/christianity/ - Christian Theology & Philosophy

What a waste of time and resources. Privatize everything and you never have these debates.

>>1576

>This is set up to be a win for conservatives that sets precedent for more ambiguous cases

That would require that the state of Maryland were not arguing it is a merely secular symbol, and that the modern supreme court was not a virulently anti-Christian institution intent on exalting sin and destroying righteousness in the United States.

>>1585

That meaning is capital punishment, almost always applied to intimidate the general public into self-censoring their dissent against foul rulers. Places that lacked western contact used the cross to make gruesome public displays against people who challenged the manmade order.

Relevant detail: the cross is on public land, but wasn't when constructed

The cross is clearly constitutional. The only clause in the constitution being argued, to my knowledge, is the 1st amendment.

<Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion

Since congress did not make a law in order to make the monument, it is constitutional. But precedent dictates that the 1st amendment is incorporated to the states. However, Maryland did not make a law in order to make the monument; it was constructed by The American Legion.

None of that matters anyway though, given that the construction of a monument is not an establishment of religion.

>>1576

>This is set up to be a win for conservatives that sets precedent for more ambiguous cases

It probably won't. The holding will likely favor conservatives so long as Roberts doesn't decide to make the court look "unpoliticized" by intentionally voting incorrectly. However, the opinion is likely be on extremely narrow grounds, as only Thomas is willing to upend bad precedent and re-establish constitutional law. Expect an outcome similar to Masterpiece Cakeshop V. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018), wherein the court found the correct holding while limiting the opinion only to the adjudication at hand.

The flag next to it is clearly promotion of religion.

UPDATE: SCOTUS passed it's ruling on Thursday

<7-2 in favor of American Legion

Summary:

>The Supreme Court issued its ruling on June 20, 2019. In a complex decision with many additional opinions, the Court ruled 7-2 to reverse and remand the Fourth Circuit's decision and allowing the Cross to stand. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the plurality decision, stated that "The cross is undoubtedly a Christian symbol, but that fact should not blind us to everything else that the Bladensburg Cross has come to represent", and that "destroying or defacing the Cross that has stood undisturbed for nearly a century would not be neutral and would not further the ideals of respect and tolerance embodied in the First Amendment". Alito was joined by Roberts, Breyer, Kagan, and Kavanaugh. Thomas and Gorsuch wrote separate opinions that joined Alito's judgement.

Wikipedia

Al Mohler talked about it today, listen here:

https://albertmohler.com/2019/06/24/briefing-6-24-19

Key takeaways:

>1971 "Lemon Test" for determining violations of establishment clause effectively ended, it was too subjective

>4 arguments in majority opinion:

>1: Historically untenable to retroactively determine that the placement of the cross had motives for establishment of religion

>2: Over time the purposes that are associated with an established monument symbol or practice often multiply

>3: Monuments take on secular symbolism in addition to Christian symbolism (which we affirm the cross is, Christian)

>4: It would be wrong for government to force the taking down of these monuments after so much time.

The hunched jew-corpse woman argued in her dissenting opinion that the presence of the Christian symbol was a harm to secularists. The majority dismissed this.

Daily reminder that the Jews packing the ranks of the secularists won't stop pushing this nonsense until we have nothing left of our civil traditions.

>>7023

Praise God.

>>1576

Nope, it's just a promotion of Roman torture method.