Merry

I note, in Breitbart, which I’m coming to prefer to Drudge for hard news, the report of a talk that Justice Antonin Scalia gave at a school somewhere in Louisiana. I am a great fan of Scalia, in the balance, though in moments I’ve accused him of being a wuss. He was on form at Archbishop Rummel High School, however, explaining how, in the USA Constitution, there are no restrictions on the public profession of the Christian religion. The limitation is only on the Government, which may not prefer one denomination to another. The Establishment Clause in the First Amendment is very easy to read and understand. The persistent attempts by Messrs ACLU and others to misconstrue it, in frivolous cases brought before the American courts, should therefore (to my mind) be severely punished.

But more, as Justice Scalia put it, there was always “a presumption of the benefit of religion for society.” Even that limousine liberal, Thomas Jefferson held this; and even nearing the peak of Enlightenment provocation, the American “fathers” were transparently Anglo-Scotch in their choice of “enlightened” reading; not bloodthirsty revolutionist French. They knew their society was by inclination Christian, by the standard of centuries, and were not proposing to exchange “the people” for some other of their own invention.

Natted States Merica was established as, “One Nation under God.” As Scalia says, she has honoured the (Trinitarian) God, and God has been good to her in reply. (There are several patriotic anthems to clinch this.)

To Scalia’s remarks (as reported) I would add that the authors of that First Amendment, as well as the full Constitution before, can be shown plainly to encourage the manifestation of religious faith, as the very embodiment of civic freedom. This is quite apparent to me in its construction, which protects expression of religion first, then adds free speech, free press, free assembly, free petitioning, free everything.

The whole purport is to protect the (presumably Christian) citizen against the power of a necessarily profane Government; and in the Second Amendment this is extended to free guns, or rather, the right to own and bear them. I might not myself think all this was wise — I would have argued for the Establishment of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church (probably without much success) — but I can read, and I find what was written in the First Amendment expressed succinctly. Let the atheist filth try to abrogate it.

Moreover, as an old-fashioned British Imperialist, I will take my signal from George III, whose final judgement was, in effect, “Let America be America.” (And even though, as a Jacobite, I need pay no attention to him.)

If you don’t like the States, don’t live there. If you live there, remember that their Constitution is Queen, or rather, has the Monarchical Power. President and Congress and even Supreme Court are expressly limited. If you want a “living constitution” that changes, then get a Queen and give her absolute powers. Indeed, get a whimsical one. (Well, I suppose that was what they were trying when they elected Lord Barack.)

Alas, these days, it takes a lot of words to explain very simple things to Americans. It takes even more if you have Canadians to deal with: all wet and cotton woolly up here. (We do not have even one warm bottom on our supreme bench with any sense at all.) … And the Europeans, hooo. …

But now I am straying from Scalia’s main point. The USA Constitution gave, in particular, no right to Government (federal or state) to “cram atheism down the throats of an American people that has always honoured God.” This is about as opposite to the intention of that Constitution as can be got; and needs rather more than “criticism.”

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It is the Twelfth Day of Christmas, leading to Twelfth Night, which is by tradition, Merry. We are in liturgical error if we are not still Merry, this twelfth day in. Verily, the Christmas season extends to Candlemas, which is four weeks more. In defiance of this world, we must remain Merry. For it is no time to be dour. Even the Friday of Our Saviour’s execution, was accounted Good. But we remain till Lent in the state of, Merry, for we commemorate the coming of that Saviour into our world.

As a Christian Traditionalist (and thus unambiguously Catholic) I insist that we try harder. Prayers, too, will bring God to our aid from merrily on high. Enough of this timorous introversion in the expression of our Christian Faith. When the sort of glum idiots that Scalia is opposing stand in our way, let us merrily bulldoze through them!