God! Your attitude's bad!
Your Laws drive us mad....
We command that You get off our case!
Here the Jesters are King,
And we're doin' our thing....
So, Big Daddy, get out of our face!

* * * *

"A society that cannot tolerate a Judge beyond history will find that it can tolerate anything else." -- Herbert Schlossberg

* * * *

"Whether the Ten Commandments are understood as the explicit revelation of the will of God or seen more as the expression of the religious genius of the Hebrew people, they have a foundational feature of Western Christian civilization, so foundational that as they are shoved aside, or recede into the surrounding darkness, that civilization will inevitably lose its moorings and begin to crumble or, more correctly, to disintegrate." -- Harold OJ Brown

* * * *

Recently (June 2005) the United States Supreme Court issued two landmark decisions that clearly showcased the moral, intellectual and spiritual befuddlement of the times. With the first decision, in a fuzzy stroke of judicial incongruity, "The Court" came to the conclusion that the Ten Commandments....can , well,... sorta/ kinda.... be displayed in public places if certain pre-conditions (whatever they are) for doing so are, well,...kinda/ sorta...vaguely met.

It was a masterstroke of post-modern, deconstructionist jurisprudence..... (Or whatever.)

And then, out of the swamp and dense fog of the Chambers of the Most High, the second Supreme Court decision emerged: Kelo vs. New London. With this decision, "The Court" firmly established that a coalition of Big Business and Big Brother have the right to confiscate your home and property and my home and property if it wants to.

Back to back "hits" for The Supremes.

So, here we are. Welcome to the dark, smoke-filled Cabaret of Lost Liberties where you and I may enjoy fantastic front row seats to watch a culture in the full-flower of its own self-destruction...a culture that has willfully wandered from the path of tradition, boundary, virtue, righteousness and relative stability and stumbled headlong into the ditch of ethical confusion and moral chaos. Parable of the Blind Leading the Blind

This sad historical burlesque did not just suddenly appear on the stage of Western Civilization, of course. There have been plenty of precedents. For instance, in 1973 there was another Benchmark Ruling from the Court of the Most High that, at the time, prophetically signaled more trouble "down the road". With the Roe v Wade decision, the Most High Court firmly established that certain grown adults have the right to kill certain smaller, unwanted, innocent human beings if they want to. Consequently in 1973, Commandment Number Six was scrubbed from the collective conscience of the nation...and now, just one generation farther "down the road", Commandment Number Eight (ie., "Thou shalt not steal.") has also been effectively erased. We shouldn't have been surprised.

(And no wonder our black-robed jurists don't want those Commandments displayed anywhere near the courthouse!)

* * * *

There is a very real spiritual battle being waged. The "Commandments Issue" symbolizes the great worldview divide in America today. The question..."What to do with Almighty God's Ten Commandments?"... is the natural flashpoint of this current conflict...as it was always designed to be. Lately, the Law of Man, seems to have flexed its muscle and demanded obeisance from The Divine Pronouncement.

Observation: When The Father is sequestered and locked away in the closet, Big Brother will inevitably strut about, chest puffed out, muscles toned and flexed in proud swagger to demonstrate his authority and power in the household. And when the Father's word is muffled out, shuffled off and closeted in...out of sight and out of mind...eventually the household's Foundations of Freedom will begin to shift...then crumble, then fall.

Kelo vs New London and Roe vs Wade may be separated in time by thirty-two years, but the two decisions are unmistakably joined at the philosophical and spiritual hip. They are, in fact, the twisted and grotesquely malformed stepchildren born of Western society's "liberated", "enlightened" and illicit love affair with the world *. Spiritual adultery does, after all, have consequences....and the philosophical condoms of "enlightened" Secular Humanism and Materialism do eventually break.

"Court-Jesters Gone Wild"
or
("Big Daddy, Get Outta Our Face!")

It's the "New London Twist";
Not a soul can resist...
Supreme Uncle Sam's in control!
Constitution?....They mock it.
Their hands?....In your pocket.
Your castle?.....
Just something they stole.

They're the Revenue-Grabbers,
Court Jesters...
Back Stabbers.
A boon to The Government Bank!
It's the Liberal Scheme,
And it's picking up steam....
Watch the "little guys" walkin' the plank!

It's the criminal ploy
That some Jurists enjoy....
While "The Fifth" they conveniently plead.
Now their power's extended,
And The Fifth they've amended....
(Though it's nothing 'the people' would need.)

It's The Socialist Game,
And it's always the same:
Each man must bow down to The Group.
Little people....Confess!
The Collective knows best!
Big Brother sez:
"Jump through my hoop!"

There's no chance to appeal,
This Big Brotherly Deal...
(Blind Justice you'll grow to adore.)
These Robin-Hoodwinkers
Are Bench-Pressing Stinkers...
Your property rights?....
They deplore.

Black-Robers devout,
Robber Barons with clout...
It's a Business 'n' Government Ruse.
Say, hey!....Such a deal!
A Municipal steal!
Little man?....So sorry.....
You lose.

* * * * * * *

Back in seventy-three,
The Supremes did agree:
It's kosher to kill in "pre-labor"....
Now in double-ought-five,
....Oh Babe!...Man alive!
You can also rob stuff from your neighbor!

Now The Judges all say...
"Some Commandments OK!"
"Six" and "Eight", though, are simply unreal!
So the little guys holler,
While our High Legal Scholars
Have discovered the right now to steal!

This Court-Jester Scam's
A real "Decalogue Jam"...
Oy vey!....
See "Progressives" contorted!
Now their Liberal Scheme's
Just a very bad dream:
Voila!......
Babies AND Freedom's aborted!

* * * * * * *

It's that Old Garden Story,
Man seeks his own Glory,
Disregarding the Rules that God made.
Lord, forgive us this Sin,
And help us begin
To acknowledge the Price that You paid.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." --- (John 3:16)

* * * *

"He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption....How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" -- (Hebrews 9: 11-14)

* * * * * * * * "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world---the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does---comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." --- (1 John 2:15-17)

Permission to post this material on Circuit Rider's Range has been granted by:

Tom Graffagnino
Hamilton, Georgia
You may respond to Tom at TGRAFFGA@aol.com
His written and art works may be viewed at his web site at
Without Excuse Creations