Letters to the Editor

CatholicAnchor.org
14th Amendment gone wild

Constitutional ignorance again reigns supreme, as the Klein case demonstrates. The Kleins, devout Evangelicals, owned a family-operated bakery in Oregon and refused to bake a cake for a homosexual wedding.

After they politely refused, and recommended other places to go, the force of the state kicked into gear, depriving the Kleins of their business license and $150,000 in fines, to boot.

The Kleins cited chapter-and-verse of the First Amendment, but the judge spoke back in a different language: the Fourteenth. As in “No state shall deprive any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.”

It needs to be said loud and clear, time and again: the Fourteenth Amendment should be regarded as unconstitutional and of no effect. You can read scholarly law review articles on this. You can also read the refutations from mainstream academics, especially from the federal courts themselves, who basically say, “How dare anyone question the power we have seized?”

The Fourteenth Amendment, which has been correctly praised by its cheerleaders as “an entirely new Constitution,” was passed under outrageously illegal circumstances in 1867, ostensibly to grant newly freed slaves full citizenship rights and legal protection from reluctant southern racists and Klansmen. These are worthy ends, but the questionable means of achieving these goals has come back to haunt us.

Even accepting the legality of the Fourteenth Amendment, it was only supposed to be binding upon a state, its unjust laws and its courts not upon its citizens.

The Fourteenth Amendment had nothing to do with guaranteeing abortion-on-demand all nine months of pregnancy or regulating cake baking and professional photography in such a way that forces business people to violate their conscience, yet these are all recent examples of the application of the Amendment.

Most recently the Fourteenth was cited in the federal court ruling knocking down Alaska’s definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Yes, the state is awaiting an appeal to the Supreme Court, but suing in the federal courts is like playing every World Series game in Yankee Stadium, with all the umpires ex-Yankees. Until states regain their lawful control of social issues, we will be under a tyranny that respects neither natural law nor constitutional law.

— Bob Bird, Kenai, Alaska

Why place Eucharist off to the side?

If we truly believe that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, how can we put him off to a side alter or a side room? If we were to meet Christ himself on the street, how would we react?. I hope I would fall to my knees or even prostrate on the ground and tremble in fear knowing that I was in the presence of the One who created my soul and body. Why is it different in church? If Christ is truly present in the Eucharist and in the reserved host in the tabernacle, why is he not front and center on the altar where he can be worshipped and glorified? Is not the Mass about Christ — his holy sacrifice for us? Didn’t Jesus die on the cross for us? Is there not a church that will put him front and center — a church that will restore him from the side chapel to the altar? Is he truly present in the Eucharist — true Body and true Blood? It feels like they have taken Christ away from the Mass, away from us.

— Thom Connelly, Chugiak, Alaska