In the 1857 “Dred Scott case,”
the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that the slave Dred Scott was just a piece of
property that had to be returned to his owner. The Justices at the time made
their decision in the midst of political controversy and under “blind justice”
according to law, not according to a justice based on ethical guidance.
Nearer to our time was the
1973 “Roe vs. Wade case,” where our Supreme Court ruled that a developing fetus wasn’t a separate, living, human
individual but merely tissue which a woman’s right over her own body allowed her
to exterminate. This decision, made under political pressure in the midst
of ethical controversy, wasn’t guided by scientific evidence or moral insight.
Even the woman “Roe” in the case ended up rebuking the Justices who had decided in
her favor.
Human misjudgments by
appointed judicial authorities are open to rebuke, even if they become the “law of the land.” About 24 years ago, I combined my criticism of
both these Supreme Court decisions in the following poem:
DRED SCOTT
Dred Scott, Dred Scott!
What is truth, and what is
not?
Do the Justices agree?
In your skin of ebony
does a human being dwell?
“No, Dred Scott, go back to hell!
Born a slave, a slave you’ll
be.
Only humans can be free.”
Dred Scott, Dred Scott!
What’s the judgment that you
got:
not a person, just a sale,
open to a bull whip’s tail,
open to abortion’s knife,
black-skinned slave without a
life,
property until the tomb,
modern baby in a womb?
Dred Scott, Dred Scott!
It’s their choice to let you
rot.
Highest Court in all the land
cannot see that you’re a man,
cannot hear your silent
scream,
cannot raise the moral steam
to refuse a so-called right:
justice blind to freedom’s
light!
Dred Scott, Dred Scott!
Some break laws to change
your lot.
Maced, they’re dragged away
by cops,
while you plow the slaver’s
crops.
What is Congress waiting for?
Do they want the Civil War?
Do they want plantations
burned?
Babies die while backs are
turned.
Dred Scott, Dred Scott!
Justices Supreme forgot!
In decisions where they lied
God will never let them hide!
Abolitionists will win!
Truth in time exposes sin:
holocausts, the death-camp
flames,
Murdered babies without names.
— David L. Hatton 10/14/1991
But earlier, when the
slaughter of the innocent unborn was sweeping our land, I’d already written
this poetic critique exposing the lack of supremacy in our Supreme Court:
COURT JUSTICE SUPREME
Court Justice Supreme,
awakened from
terrestrial dream,
a ghost before
real Justice,
felt familiar
spirits dancing
through his mind
again:
his own thoughts,
so it seemed.
Court Justice Supreme,
glanced briefly
from this prancing team,
and watched a
well-known law
of deathbed will
and testament
point to an older,
mother truth
of unknown will
and tests unseen.
Court Justice Supreme
saw in her ancient
light a stream
of many pristine
untried lives
with fading echoes
in their eyes
from each one’s
last convulsing cry
for justice from
the Court.
Court Justice Supreme
turned back to
join the dancers’ scream,
and stepping to
their song
of rights to
freedom’s ease,
soon found no way
to quit
the jerking,
reeling frenzy
of the dance in
demon darkness:
sentence of the
Highest Court.
— David L. Hatton,
9/14/1990
The recent Supreme Court
ruling on “marriage” was beyond the legitimate
jurisdiction of any human court, because the institution itself predates all earthly
governments. But again, this decision came in the midst of nationwide
controversy and under an extremely well-organized agenda of political pressure.
It’s obvious that the pressure won out, for the unanimous voice of history,
culture, biological science and the world's religions did not. But those
Justices await their own hearing, where they will have to answer to a much louder
Voice than these. And we’re next in line right behind them, for it’s the same
Voice to which all of us must eventually listen, trembling either with joyful faith
or fearful regret.
In their own upcoming case, these
current Justices of our Supreme Court are scheduled to appear before the real
SUPREME COURT. At their inevitable arraignment, our Creator and Judge will
surely allude to His previous ruling in the first chapter of His Law-Book:
So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and
female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. . .” (Gen 1:27-28a, ESV)
Perhaps to this He will add, “The
gender-distinctive anatomy was there. The physiological reproductive function
was there. My authority as the Designer was there. My wisdom as the Inventor of marriage was there. What did you not understand?”
Various shouts, rejoicing or
decrying our nation’s Supreme Court decision, are presently flooding the
Internet. I stand with the call to show love to all without changing
commitment to God given in the official statement of The Wesleyan Church, the
denomination in which I’m ordained. But I’ve appreciated the insights and
implications in the post by Seedbed’s editor, J. D. Walt: “Why Marriage is not about Marriage and What it is about.”
I also agree with the critique and message by the young Catholic, “still virgin”
journalist Arleen Spencely, who wrote a post entitled, “Why
same-sex marriage won’t spark a marriage crisis.” I’m sure other
commentaries on this decision will follow.
In view of the Final Judgment
we all must face, I see this recent decision as merely another
confirmation of what happens when human wills live in disregard for the will of
God. It’s not a time for Christians to get angry, discouraged or apathetic. Our
Supreme Court has not and cannot change what marriage really is. But the
wayward trend in our social environment confirmed by this contrived legalism offers us a
definitive opportunity to refresh our initial commitment to walk simultaneously
in God’s love and in His truth.
The call to love and care for those presently celebrating in the LGBT community has not changed in the least. The call to practice and proclaim divinely revealed truth—whether it concerns marriage
or any other God-ordained reality abused or redefined by lost souls—is also as firm as
ever. In view of eternity, this situation is temporary, transitory, passing, just as all others are in life. But it offers another perfect occasion in morally stormy weather to
invite those who’ll listen to come join us under the everlasting shelter of faith in Jesus
Christ as Savior and Lord.
