Justice for Accused and Accuser

Go ahead and dive right in today to the subject before us. I'm sure that everybody watching this right now. We're listening to it right now on your podcast feed or whatever. You've all heard something about Kavanaugh.

Kavanaugh as a judge. He is the nominee for the next position in the Supreme Court and Shortly before all this took place We learned these allegations. Dr. Ford alleges that she was sexually assaulted By Kavanaugh and I think that the dates sort of shifted and changed.

So you'll see there were some saying it was early in the 80s and then it was the mid 80s. And so it's kind of gone back and forth, but I believe the date that was settled on was sometime in 1982. Because that's what that's what Kavanaugh was actually addressing.

So the allegations were that dr Ford was assaulted sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh, I guess around 1982 and the This the challenge in all in all of it is from one aspect of this people are saying Why did you hold on to this information for so long?

Right, and it just seems you know, very convenient that you're releasing it right now. And so far from being sort of a quote-unquote job interview where Kavanaugh has asked questions. This has become a whole debacle related to sexual assault Charges and so everybody knows and we have to ask the question how are we supposed to actually engage this and so I want to say that this is an important question because it goes beyond just our favorite political party and The person that we want in the Supreme Court.

Abortion, Roe v. Wade, and the Limits of Supreme Court Strategy

Can I we'll just start with this? My problem with this initially is that I know that many people are hopeful for Kavanaugh because they you know. Say he's a pro-life guy. Having a pro-life guy in the Supreme Court might mean the end of Roe.

And I know that a lot of Democrats and liberals are saying we cannot have him on the Supreme Court because we're gonna lose Our abortion rights. Let me just say to the Democrats who believe that the liberals who believe that I don't believe you're in any danger.

In terms of Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court and Supreme Court undoing Roe versus Wade I think that you're gonna maintain your abortion rights with a pro-life person on the Supreme Court. Because we need to remember that when Roe passed it was a Republican dominated Supreme Court and when Roe passed we had what many pro-lifers are dreaming of today a Supreme Court ruled by Conservatives those sorts of things.

Well, that's who gave us Roe versus Wade. I don't believe that that's the way to undo Roe versus Wade or to actually end abortion in our country. Even if you had Roe v. Wade overturned by the Supreme Court today.

You would still have abortion taking place within the states right because of the incremental legislation. That pro-life groups have put into place. So, let me just explain that for those of you who are hearing this for the first time the pro-life groups have opted for an incremental Strategy towards ending abortion at the state level and what they've done is they've actually added Restrictions so they say that abortion shall be illegal except for and they give you all these.

You know different reasons or ways that abortion can still be possible at the state level. What that is effectively done is it's actually put legislation in at the state level that even if you remove Roe Abortion is now legal of the state because of the pro-life legislation put into place that actually specifies how abortions can take place.

So they'll say things like you can't have an abortion under 22 weeks or 20 weeks or whatever or I would say sorry beyond right beyond 22 or 20 weeks, which means if so facto by logical deduction. You can have at the state level abortions below 20 weeks, right?

And that amazingly is legislation that is often put into place by conservatives conservative pro-lifers. So when we think about Roe being pushed aside We need to consider the fact that be since Roe began pro-life movement the pro-life movement has has had an abysmal Disastrous strategy of ending abortion that has actually helped abortion stay legal at the state level.

So here what I'm saying and help Planned Parenthood monopolize the industry. That's right.

So here what I'm saying and I don't mean this in any way to cut anybody's throats or hurt anybody here I just mean this in terms of let's think about it as Christians and be honest with ourselves about effective strategies.

If Roe is ended tonight at 8 p .m Abortions still happening tomorrow in the states because the pro-life movements incremental legislation just consider that so someone says well Then what in the world are we going to do?

Well, the answer of course is for states exactly to actually exercise their state sovereignty lesser magistrate this Union lesser magistrates need to uphold their duties as lesser magistrates and resist the tyrannical Horrible opinion of a higher court, which is not legislation.

Roe v. Wade is not legislation. It's an opinion of a court based upon a faulty premise that what's inside the womb is potential human life. So with all that said I think the big hubbub over Kavanaugh's many people are thinking on both sides Republican and Democrat.

They're thinking if Kavanaugh's in place we can undo Roe now. I Think that's an ineffective strategy. I think it goes against how our system of government is supposed to work. Congress makes legislation according to our Constitution not the Supreme Court so the states have the right to just Reject the opinion of the Supreme Court and a state like, Arizona.

Our state can say we have Arizona statute 13 -3 6 0 3 that says that abortions a criminal act. All we have to do in Arizona is the lesser magistrate has to say we're gonna uphold 13 -3 6 0 3 abortions illegal in Arizona.

It's a crime and we resist the Supreme Court's tyrannical opinion. That's what we must do. So with that said I don't personally believe there's any threat with Kavanaugh In terms of abortion ending in our country, but people believe that on both sides and I believe that's where the big hubbub is.

Sexual Assault, Due Process, and Moral Consistency

Yeah, we talked about this a little bit last week. Just Doug's article was really great about this. Where it's it's just it's essentially a war. Literally a war over worship. And so you have the left side The Liberals who are going to go to battle they will fight to the death to maintain their ability to Worship comfort in the situation, you know abortion is a matter of worship for them, right?

And so they will go to the mat. They will they will dive they will you as we're witnessing they will do anything they possibly can to try to keep that option available and so. Yeah, like you're saying so they in their mind.

They think the the Kavanaugh becoming being Approved to the Supreme Court then will end their their ability to abort their children and. Yeah, so that's so. That's why you're seeing a lot of just evil tactics, you know, and yeah, so.

Joy anything. Well, I just if you're dealing if you're if you're. These are two like separate things like where his ability to Overturn Roe v. Wade and a sexual assault are two different things and you're not supposed to.

The sober-minded clear-thinking person shouldn't let right guilt be determined by The good or the potential good or the potential evil that a person can do. They can they're like, how would you like to be in a courtroom where that happened?

If someone was like, oh, well, I have a lot of money. So my sexual assault suddenly means less because I can contribute to society. That's not how we're supposed to. You know in the general public is obviously not a courtroom setting.

It's not a legal setting but that's not how we're supposed to form our opinions about people. We're not supposed to give people a free pass on sexual assault if they can end abortion and we're certainly not supposed to make false Sexual allegations.

I'm not saying that's what happened here to keep people from.

The Testimony and the Question of Evidence

Overturning or Making abortion illegal. So we're gonna actually now play just a little clip to introduce a little bit more about the discussion. What's taking place for the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol.

Edward Lawrence is there. What's going on there? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, a very emotional day obviously for Christine Blasey Ford as she's giving her testimony on the verge of tears as you saw several times as she recounted made her accusation saying that judge Brett Kavanaugh then a teenager and a friend pushed her into a bedroom then Jumped on top of her and she says she felt like she was going to be raped now.

Senator Dick Durbin in the room says that he wanted a clarification of her memory. Listen.

Dr. Ford with what degree of certainty? Do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you?

100 Now to begin this hearing the senator Chuck Grassley the chairman of this committee said that they have investigated all of the allegations including Ford's.

My staff reached out to other individuals allegedly at the party mark judge Patrick Smith Leland Kaiser all three submitted statements to the Senate under and under penalty of felony. Denying any knowledge of the events described by dr. Ford dr Ford's lifelong friend, dr. Miss Kaiser Stated she doesn't know judge Kavanaugh and doesn't recall ever attending a party with him.

Now for her part their ranking Democrat on the committee senator Dianne Feinstein defended her actions in holding on to this letter for about six weeks.

She reiterated that she wanted this held confidential and I held it confidential up to a point where The witness was willing to come forward.

And during most of this questioning, they turned it over to a career prosecutor who questioned the memory of Ford.

Would it be fair to say that somebody drove you somewhere either to the party or home from the party? Correct. Okay. Has anyone come forward to say to you? Hey, remember I was the one that drove you home.

No.

She could also not remember where the party was or what date it happened. Neal. So there's just a bit of an overview there's more that could be said. I think we need to pay attention close attention to God's standards here in terms of how do we think through these sorts of things?

God's Standards of Justice for Victim and Accused

Because let me just say this in God's law God actually upholds both people one He upholds the victim in terms of he gives just penalties for those who have been truly violated. So whether it's theft whether it's rape whether it's murder, whatever the case may be God's standards are just they are good.

If you read the book of Hebrews in chapter 12, it says that every violation every sin that took place received a just Penalty. So according to the New Testament the writer of Hebrews in chapter 2 I believe it's first 14 might escape me at the moment the writer of Hebrews says in a New Testament post cross post resurrection post ascension that every crime every sin received a just Penalty, so it wasn't unjust.

Okay, so God's law gives just penalties the book of Ecclesiastes says that People's hearts men's hearts are emboldened to do wickedness when justice is not executed speedily. So when justice is not done in a culture and a society when it's not done quickly.

It says that men's hearts are emboldened to do wickedness. So when we lose God's standards of justice in the world. Then we see that people's hearts are emboldened to do wickedness. God upholds both things one justice true justice for the victim, but also and this is very very critical God upholds justice and high standards for the Accused in other words that whole saying that we have in our culture in society where it says innocent until proven guilty.

You ought to know that that is from the Christian worldview. That is from the biblical worldview.