I was on a podcast this week to discuss the Ninth Amendment and my most recent book, The Naked Court—Understanding and Resisting a Damnable United States Supreme Court, and one of the hosts asked, “Do you hate the Supreme Court?” It caught me off guard, but here is my million dollar ‘’final answer.”   Yes. 

Last week President Joe Biden thrust into the national spotlight the Ninth Amendment I have been talking about for the last two years. What he said was right, but for all the wrong reasons. The Constitution will be recovered or lost for a generation or more based on whether states correctly use the Ninth Amendment. Tennessee’s legislature and governor can lead the way in using it correctly if they will.

When, in 1938, in Erie Railroad v. Thompkins, the United States Supreme Court denied the existence of any transcendent authority and the possibility of any fundamental law, it was bound to go wrong, and it did. Its damnable arrogance in relation to the transcendent creator God reached full flower in 2015 when it took back the transcendent authority it had earlier said belonged to the states. Will our state elected officials say to the Supreme Court, “Enough!”

I do not use the word in my title pejoratively; rather, I believe it is descriptive of the Court’s understanding of law, and it has given rise to legislation that poses the most fundamental worldview question Tennessee’s legislators will face this session. It will serve as a clue to what Tennesseans really believe and the degree of tyranny that lies before us.

Many Christians today seem intent either on preserving the United States or making it great again, depending on how they view its current condition. But what must be preserved or recovered if they are to succeed? The upcoming legislative session will reveal what we think it is. 

A couple of weeks ago, the story of the Incarnation celebrated on Christmas day finally became “larger than life” for me. I realized I had such a “little” view of the Incarnation.  Only a “BIG” incarnation makes Christmas truly merry. 

I can only answer the question posed by this week’s commentary headline for me and the organization I help lead, but the answer is a resounding “Yes.” The “new” for me is the predicate for the new organizationally. And that new will result in something new being offered to pastors and politicians during the upcoming legislative session.

In 2015, then Governor Haslam began to administer a law in Tennessee without constitutional authority, contrary its plain language. He began a practice in our state that necessarily repudiates the the whole foundation for the Christmas story. What Haslam began Governor Lee has continued. Here is the problem, why it is so great, and how it can be fixed.

On October 13th, the full import of a provision in the Tennessee Code that I have been reading for the last six years hit home. The realization proved just how uncritical my thinking has been. What the statute says is truly damnable, and believe it or not, is a practical repudiation of the Christmas story I talked about last week. 

Three weeks from today will be Christmas Day. Until about weeks ago I would have called myself a heretic for saying the most fundamental point of Christmas story—the events told in Luke Chapter 2 about the night Jesus was born—is not God sending His Son to earth so “believers” could be forgiven of their sins and go to Heaven. If you’ve been told that salvation is the fundamental point of the story or believe that, as I did, then I encourage you to read on.