Is Christianity Dying?: Ninety-Nine Reflections in Religion, Science, and Morality by Craig A. James

Author:Craig A. James [James, Craig A.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-07-09T16:00:00+00:00

4.14. Biblical and Constitutional Inerrancy: Why the Tea Party is so Crazy

Originally published 09 November, 2010

A few days ago I wrote that the Tea Baggers seem to live in an alternate reality. And today, I'm pleased to announce that I figured out why.

The Tea Party's alternate reality arises from the Doctrine of Constitutional Inerrancy, the belief that the United States Constitution is perfect and its authors are practically saints.

My "Aha!" moment came when I realized that Constitutional Inerrancy is a side effect of a belief in Biblical Inerrancy, the idea that the Bible is God's literal word, perfect in every way. The Tea Party has apparently extended that hollow philosophy to our Constitution and its authors. It's a new quasi-religion.

It's no surprise that these two beliefs go together. Willingness to accept authority and take things on faith isn't restricted to one area of life. The ability to take something on faith and reject reason has to be deeply ingrained. In order for this way of thinking to work, it must permeate a person's life.

The problem is that belief in Biblical Inerrancy fosters an illogical mind. In addition to accepting the Bible and God's word without question, a person who thinks this way will accept all sorts of other things on faith. All it takes is the say-so of an authority figure.

So imagine you're conversing with a creationist who believes God wrote the Bible a couple thousand years ago and that the Bible is perfect in every way. When you ask this person hard questions like why evil exists in the world, or point out that the Bible has lots of errors and contradictions, he answers, "God works in mysterious ways," or, "Faith is stronger than reason," or "It's not your place to question God."

Would it surprise you to find out that this person had similar attitudes toward the Founding Fathers and their "bible," the United States Constitution? That they considered the Bible inerrant and unchangeable?

It's as natural as breathing to them. They learned from an early age to worship an authority figure whose wisdom is absolute and unquestionable. They learned that the Bible is God's own words and contains no errors. There is no room for challenges, no thought that there could be mistakes. So it's perfectly natural for them to "project" these same attitudes into other parts of their lives. It's normal to yield their reasoning powers to a higher power. They were taught early and taught well. They accept things on faith and authority.

If you told me, "Hey, here's our new Constitution, it is perfect in every way," the first thing I'd say is, "I'll have a look and get back to you on that." I was taught that we're all supposed to think for ourselves, and that nobody is perfect. The idea that someone could write a set of laws that would serve our country forever, without alteration or even new interpretations, strikes me as laughable.

My respect for and reverence of the Constitution is not because I idolize it or its authors.

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