Contract with Congress

Value Voters' Contract with Congress
By Robert Crane

Christians apparently are under attack these days—well those Christians who have aligned the bible with neo-conservatism anyway. And they are fighting mad. At least those who decided it was time to draw up a contract to support only those lawmakers and representatives whom abide by the ten commandments, I mean ten covenants/terms of the Value’s Voters Contract. This instrument, developed in the spirit of Newt’s Contract With America, was the creation of forty three religious leaders, aptly called the Servant Committee, who felt it is time for Americans of Values to put their vote where their prayers are. And let it be known this was a broad spectrum of religion’s brightest; why there were even four women and two rabbis in the bunch. Okay, so I didn’t see any Catholics, at least any by title; it must have been some of the tough language on illegal immigrants that kept them away from the table. And of course there were no ... you know ... Muslims; but then again, America is God’s gift to Christians; Muslims need not indulge.

The make-up of the contract drafters is interesting, especially when one considers the justification for creating this pact. It all starts with a rather startling interpretation of the most spun document ever written, The Declaration of Independence.

I hate to bore you with this but here it is again, that one sentence that gets all the attention: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Here is how the gang of forty three interpreted that in the opening of their contract: “We are citizens of the United States of America and subjects of the sovereign Creator, acknowledged in the Declaration of Independence as the Supreme Ruler and Judge of the World.

Some real slight of hand there: “subjects of the sovereign Creator”. Geez … where does it say we are the subjects of any Creator, let alone 'THE' sovereign Creator. In fact, the Declaration of Independence is carefully worded to say “endowed by THEIR Creator”; acknowledging the freedom for people to have differing beliefs in whom their Creator might be. And apparently “endowed”, as only Bible interpreters can do, implies the sovereign Creator is the Supreme Ruler and Judge of the World.

I’m already a little nervous and I haven’t even gotten to the ten terms in this contract.