Our Constitution is Not Based on Judeo-Christian Principles

 

Periodically I read on social media the idea that the Constitution of the United States was based on Judeo-Christian principles.

As a diligent reader of both, the Constitution, and the Bible, I can find no truth or substance in the idea.

Nowhere in the Bible do I read that human governments should be set in three coequal branches of legislative, executive, and judicial.

Nowhere in the Bible do I find the right to keep and bear arms, nor of the freedom of the press, or speech.

Nowhere in the Bible do I read, as I do read in the Constitution, that government has the authority to establish laws for copyright and patent protections.

There just is not anything in the Bible that resembles to any degree the content or principle contained in the Constitution.

I cannot find anything in the Constitution that brings over the Ten Commandments, the teachings of Jesus, the advice of Paul to churches as to how they should run their churches.

These two, the Constitution and the Bible, are as different in nature and purpose as are a hockey game and a wine-tasting event.

I do, however, report one singular thought in the Constitution that, incidentally and accidentally, can be found in the Bible; Article I, Section 8, clause 5 states The Congress shall have Power To . . . fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.

Proverbs 20:10 states “Differing weights and differing measures— the LORD detests them both.” 

It is a stretch to think that the founders, when given opportunity to reach toward the Bible for readily recognizable principles, grasped only this solitary concept to include, especially when one discovers that the importance of accurate weights and measures can also be found in the records of the ancient Egyptians.

(https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/weights/weight.html)

It is just as logical to conclude that founders imported principles from the Egyptians to the Constitution as to assume they did so from the Bible.

Concor Eastside Elementary School Centennial Celebration October 3 2026

 

Psalms 102: 27 But you remain the same,
    and your years will never end.
28 The children of your servants will live in your presence;
    their descendants will be established before you.”

Concord Eastside Elementary school celebrated its Centennial on October 3 this year.

I worked as a janitor in that school fifty years ago.

I remember thinking at that time “Fifty years is a long time for anything to be around.”

I remember the original two-story building on the site.

I remember using an old-style washing tub with attached wringer, which grabbed my fingers, as I laundered the cleaning cloths.

I remember listening to WLS on the PA system while I scrubbed and refinished the floors in the classrooms.

But here, at the Centennial Celebration, things have changed, and upgraded with new materials.

I had once said to my grandfather when I noticed the Central building at Concord being demolished in 1974 “They are tearing down my history.” He replied “They’ll be doing that your whole life.”

Yes, buildings will come and go, languages change over historic time, our personal conditions seem as unpredictable as the weather.

But the psalmist assures us that God never changes.

The Psalmist encourages hope in a God who is beyond the fickle and erratic impulses of the architects of change.

Pictures from the Centennial Celbration

Reviewing a Review of a Review of a Beatles Album

 

 

Opinions and perspectives, most everyone of interest bearing one, represent the accumulated, deliberated, or totally impetuous, personal reactions to events, artistic works, and all other human exercise of thought and deed.

Today I bring to you an example of such exercise of perspective from the drawer of historical general irrelevance (though perhaps relevant to some).

In other words, I offer a review of reviews.

In June of nineteen-sixty-seven the Beatles released “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”.

The following is a partial review of the album followed by a review of the review which I then will review…

New York Times, Richard Goldstein (June 18, 1967)

“The sound is a pastiche of dissonance and lushness. The  mood is mellow, even nostalgic. But, like the cover, the over-all effect is busy, hip and cluttered. Like an over-attended child, ‘Sergeant Pepper’ is spoiled. It reeks of horns and harps, harmonica quartets, assorted animal noises and a 41-piece orchestra; on at least one cut, the Beatles are not heard at all instrumentally.”

Esquire, Robert Christgau (review written in December 1967)

“Sgt. Pepper is a consolidation, more intricate than Revolver but not more substantial. Part of [Richard] Goldstein’s mistake, I think, has been to allow all the filters and reverbs and orchestral effects and overdubs to deafen him to the stuff underneath, which was pretty nice, and to fall victim to over-anticipation. Although Goldstein still insists he was right, I attribute his review to a failure of nerve.”

 

Mike Settles

The five months the Beatles worked on the album before its release should have alerted the consumer, radio DJ, and reviewer that this album was not to be a usual release but an unprecedented musical adventure pushing rock music and the Beatles’ own personal and collective creative expression to a relatively unrestrained crest.

I think what Goldstein describes as an over attended child really was the freedom to experiment without the conventional restraints of monetary budgets and recording company policy.

Christgau describes Goldstein as having fallen “victim to over-anticipation”.

One critic criticizing another critic; though I think Christgau was right.

For sure I am not picking on Goldstein. Though I disagree with his review of the album, I love the words and imagery by which he derided the album.

Goldstein had once described the voice of Nico (Christa Paffgen) with the following words…

“She sings in perfect mellow ovals, like a cello getting up in the morning.”

You can deliberate upon your own perspective of Nico’s vocal qualities by listening to “I’ll Be Your Mirror” at the following Youtube link”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZudHYTya-dQ&list=RDZudHYTya-dQ&start_radio=1