The transcript is not yet online at the time I'm making this post, but it should soon be. I watched "my favorite TV show" NOW last night, and as usual the subject matter was quite provoking. In fact, it touched on a concept that I've never come to a satisfactory conclusion on: how to apply one's faith/morals to civics. In these cases, judges belonging to Christian churches (here Catholic and Baptist) had to decide cases which are basically consider battles in the Culture Wars. The judge interviewed on NOW was Alvarez, who had to decide whether a 13-year-old pregnant girl whose official guardian was the state of Florida should be allowed to get an abortion or not; the state was fighting her. As a Catholic he may believe abortion is wrong (though in this case, there was a health risk), but he maintained that he made his decision to grant her request solely on the law. An official from Alvarez's diocese called up his office and threatened to withhold communion or something. The second case discussed was Judge Greer of the Schaivo case who was in fact kicked out of the church to which he had belonged for many years. A protestant pastor was interviewed who said that he would have done the same thing to Greer. That it is a pastor's job to kick out people from their church who blatantly disregard God's will (as defined by the pastor, obviously). "Abortion is a sin in the Catholic church," he said, implying Alvarez should be kicked out.
Dis-membering people from the Church aside, the part that most interests me is the look into the judge's mind here. He says he deliberately ignores his personal moral values in making decisions about state law. He's a Christian, and I often get the impression from other Christians that they feel called to let Jesus' model inform their political choices. I've never understood, however, to what extent being a Christian should influence one's politics. Should a judge feel compelled to undermine laws that are immoral or should he only go against a law if it contradicts a deeper legal principle (e.g., a constitution)? And should I vote Republican or Democrat?
Posted by tdupuy at June 18, 2005 2:25 PM