On Wednesday Night – Feb 6^th – we will try to answer the question – “Is conservatism always right?” As most of you know,  I consider myself to be a conservative Christian. So you can imagine what I was thinking when I heard about the following:

Recently, Charles Osgood, host of the CBS News Sunday Morning show, had an interview with Lewis Michael Seidman, Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University who said  “I’ve got a simple idea: Let’s give up on the Constitution…. To be clear, I don’t think we should give up on everything in the Constitution. The Constitution has many important and
inspiring provisions, but we should obey these because they are important and inspiring, not because a bunch of people who are now long-dead favored them two centuries ago.  Unfortunately, the Constitution also contains some provisions that are not so inspiring…    Constitutional obedience has a pernicious impact on our political culture. Take the recent debate about gun control. None of my friends can believe it, but I happen to be skeptical of most forms of gun control. I understand, though, that’s not everyone’s view, and I’m eager to talk with people who disagree. But what happens when the issue gets Constitutional-ized? … Talking about gun control in terms of constitutional obligation needlessly raises the temperature of political discussion. Instead of a question of policy, about which reasonable people can disagree, it becomes a test of one’s commitment to our foundational document and, so, to America itself. This is our country. We live in it, and we have a right to the kind of country we want. We would not allow the French or the United Nations to rule us, and neither should we allow people who died over two centuries ago and knew nothing of our country as it exists today. If we are to take back our own country, we have to start making decisions for ourselves, and stop deferring to an ancient and outdated document.”

Is the Professor right?  Is the U.S. Constitution right because it is old? Does it make sense to hold on to a document that was written by men who never drove a car, flew in an airplane, typed on a computer keyboard, took an anti-biotic or lived under the threat of thermo-nuclear war?  Since times have changed, doesn’t it make sense that our rules and laws must change to keep up with the times?

And if the U.S. Constitution is considered old at 226 years, what about the Bible at over 2000 years? And speaking of the Bible, even the Bible seems to send a mixed message about conserving the old or allowing for something new. In Jeremiah, the Bible encourages us to be conservative – to conserve the old ways of doing things. Jer 6:16 Thus says the LORD: “Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls.” But in Isaiah, the Bible makes the people of God aware that the Lord was planning something new – Isa 43:18 “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old.  19 Behold, I will do a new thing.”

The NEW THING that the Lord would do was to provide a Messiah, a Savior in the person of Jesus Christ. But when the Messiah came, most of the people were “conservative” and chose their Old Paths over Gods “New Thing” – They accused Jesus of being a “Liberal” – of (Mat 15: 2) transgressing the tradition of the elders  and  (Luk 23: 2)perverting the nation. So in this case, the conservative position led the people to crucify their Messiah.

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