The Roe v. Wade opinion leak has exposed another example of how far Conservative Christians have moved from the teachings of Jesus.
Jesus was killed for challenging the Jewish Temple's power to dictate to Jews how they must think and behave. Jesus rejected that authority, preaching each individual must find God for themselves, and the Temple leaders had no special authority to set up rules for life.
I have never seen a single word in the Bible attributed to Jesus which suggested he thought God had delegated the right to prejudge sin to prevent it. The parable of the good Samaritan says absolutely nothing about stopping the wrongful attack, or punishing the bad guys. It was all about helping the victim - regardless of his religion. Jesus's message throughout his ministry was focused on teaching people to answer only to God and treat those around us with love, respect and honesty. Government is a different world than religious belief.
That's not the MO of modern Christian Conservatives. Achieving their agenda trumps respect, honesty and letting each person develop their own relationship with God.
Justice Clarence Thomas downplays his Christian conservativism to maintain the appearance of neutrality but now that abortion is before the court the judicial tradition that a judge must avoid "even the appearance of impropriety" to maintain faith in the judicial system is an irritation to be ignored. He waves off the notion he should recuse himself from the deliberations on Roe v. Wade even though he has been an active participant in Christian Conservative events, and his wife has been a vociferous advocate for overturning Roe v. Wade. His mind is not open to other views. The apparent impropriety is overwhelming.
Justice Kavanaugh, about 4 years ago when he sought to get appointed to the Supreme Court, sat before a Senate Committee under oath and in direct response to a question about whether he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, said that the case was "settled law". He committed a Lawyers lie, lying in an indirect and deliberate manner to give the impression he was answering no. Now he joins the majority in proposing to overturn Roe v. Wade. He lied to get the job so he could enforce Christian Conservative sharia law.
Both seem to be of the view God has given him the special right to pre judge the sins of others. If they need to lie to achieve their objective, the ends justify the means.
The Republican party Christian wing has become so sure they know it all, so disdainful of any view other than what's dictated from Christian Conservative church pulpits, that political corruption in the name of Jesus is now acceptable - from voter suppression to lying to get on the Supreme Court, to "believing" the January 6 invasion of the Capitol Building was justified because the election was stolen by evil Democrats.
In the 1970's the Democratic Party that had controlled Congress for decades let their success lull them into overlooking corruption in their biggest voting bloc, labor unions. The public didn't overlook it and that opened the door for Ronald Reagan to begin 42 years of Republican dominance.
Will the Conservative Republican current tolerance of corruption lead the public to reject them? I have faith in the American people so I hope so. If not we are on our way to becoming like those Jewish temple leaders of Jesus's time, or fake democracy's like Russia or China in our time, who value power and the ability to crush dissent from the ideas they preach, over the soft power of fairness and tolerance.
