The Bible in American Law and Politics. John R. Vile

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СКАЧАТЬ that all men are created equal.” (King 1963)

      In the 1960s, a number of individuals who opposed being drafted into the armed forces did so on the basis that because the war was unjust, it would be immoral for them to serve. Many received inspiration from William Sloane Coffin Jr. (1924–2006), who was the chaplain at Yale University and who was himself brought to trial for encouraging draft resistance (Goldstein 2004, 183–224). Coffin especially liked to quote Amos 5:24, indicating that it was the “preacher’s job to call for justice to roll down like mighty waters. The politician’s job was to work out the irrigation system” (Goldstein 2004, 222).

      See also King, Martin Luther, Jr.; Natural Law; Puritans; Quakers

       For Reference and Further Reading

      Allen, Barbara. 2000. “Martin Luther King’s Civil Disobedience and the American Covenant tradition.” Publius 30 (Autumn): 71–113.

      Areshinze, Giorgi. 2016. Democratic Religion from Locke to Obama: Faith and the Civil Life of Democracy. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.

Blankley, Bethany. 2012. “The Biblical Civil Disobedience Mandate.” HuffPost. February 6 [updated April 7, 2012]. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biblical-civil-disobedience-mandate_b_1249785.

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Goldstein, Warren. 2004. William Sloane Coffin Jr.: A Holy Impatience. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. August 1963. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf.

Perry, Lewis. 2013. Civil Disobedience: An American Tradition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

      Waskow, Arthur O. n.d. “Civil Disobedience in the Bible.” https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/civil-disobedience-in-the-bible/.

Clark, Champ

      Champ Clark (1850–1921) was a member of the House of Representatives from Missouri who served from 1897 to 1921 and was Speaker of the House from 1911 to 1919. Born in Kentucky, Clark earned his undergraduate degree from Bethany College, which had been founded by Alexander Campbell, who founded the Disciples of Christ, which Clark joined. Clark studied law at the University of Cincinnati. He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1912 but lost to Woodrow Wilson and later opposed Wilson’s call for U.S. entry into World War I.

      Clark was widely known for his oratory, and for many years held the record for the longest speech ever given before Congress. Umphrey Lee observed that Clark “was proud of the statement that he quoted the Bible oftener and more accurately than any other man in Congress” (1935, 19). Similarly, Clark’s biographer observes that “Champ Clark is the most competent and thorough Bible student in public life to-day. His speeches, orations, and lectures are replete with accurate and apropos bible quotations” (Webb 1912, 22).

      Champ told his biographer that his father wanted him to read the Bible, but that when Champ refused, he bought him a “vest-pocket volume” with the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, and Washington’s Farewell Address, and said, “My son, as you will not read your Bible, here is the next best book; study it” (Webb 1912, 23). Later refusing to give in to his son’s desire to read novels, but indulging his interest in histories and biographies, his father provided him with a copy of William Wirt’s Life of Patrick Henry. Enamored with Henry’s speech at St. John’s Church, Clark was especially mesmerized by the words, “The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong [Ecclesiastes 9:11].” Telling his father how enamored he was with these words, Clark said that his father responded, “My son, King Solomon, and not Patrick Henry, wrote that sentence that you admire so much. Read your Bible as eagerly as you do your histories and biographies, and you will find hundreds of others fully as magnificent” (Webb 1912, 24). Clark reported that “I took him at his word, and have been reading the Bible ever since, which constantly increasing profit and delight. To say nothing of its religious value, it is the best book in the world to quote from. Whatever knowledge I have of it dates from the day that my father placed William Wirt’s ‘Life of Patrick Henry’ in my hands” (Webb 1912, 24–25).

      See also Henry, Patrick; Wilson, Woodrow

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       For Reference and Further Reading

      Lee, Umphrey. 1935. “The English Bible and American Public Men.” Christian Education 19 (October): 18–21.

Webb, W. L. 1912. Champ Clark. New York: Neale Publishing Company.

Climate Change

      There is a rising scientific consensus that the earth is warming as a result of the increased burning of fossil fuels, which is increasing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There is further widespread scientific agreement that this gas traps radiation in the atmosphere, creating global warming; that such warming is having serious negative environmental consequences; and that steps need to be taken to combat them. Scientists believe that global warming is exaggerating existing weather patterns, resulting in greater flooding, especially in low-lying areas, more intense fires and storms, and the like. The dangers of global warming are often presented in apocalyptic language that resembles the biblical terminology that evangelists once used to describe the end of the world (Lilly 2016).

      A fair number of people, typically political conservatives who are generally wary of increased governmental initiatives, however, have rejected such claims outright. Others have argued that they are exaggerated, have suggested that they might be the result of unknown phenomena that are not so directly connected to human actions, or have argued either that combatting global warming might have adverse economic consequences or that funds spent to reduce global warming could better be spent in other ways (Alumkal 2017).

      Support for this position might be fueled in part by conservative interpreters of the Bible who believe that Genesis teaches a literal six-day creation and who therefore suspect that scientists might have a hidden agenda in advancing theories of global warming just as they believe they did in advancing the theory that humans evolved from other forms of animal life. Critics are particularly suspicious of individuals who in their judgment seek to deify the earth or nature in an attempt to elevate attention to the environment. Some may, indeed, believe that Christ’s second coming might be so imminent as to think that it is pointless to worry about such long-run dangers (Delgado 2017, 17). Others believe that advocates of global warming are showing a lack of faith in the resilience of God’s creation as evidenced in Psalm 19:1–6 and its own self-correcting mechanisms. Moreover, some have argued that God’s promise to Noah in СКАЧАТЬ