Gravestones And Bibles In Jury Rooms

Democrats have traditionally been mostly working class. A few ethnic groups spend a great deal of money on funerals, but most can't afford large gravestones. My mother and father, like most traditional Democrats, served in the armed forces when there was a draft. Because they gave any extra income to Catholic missions, buying a gravestone, when one was offered by the U.S. Government for free, would have been wasteful, and perhaps worse, ostentatious.

When you go to their grave site, the stones are small markers laid flat on the ground so lawn mowers can pass over without stopping. Unlike granite stones that stand up proudly from the lawn, demanding special attention from the gardener, my parent's markers ask nothing more than to be left alone. Just like their lives. Nothing fancy. The simple engraving tells how they served their country with honor on the battlefield, liberating people they never knew, for a cause called "freedom."

Their markers are appropriate to their lives. Simple, honest, practical, and largely unappreciated. But it's their lives, and the lives of millions like them that made this country great. The "Joe's and Jane's" that lived according to the rules, and raise their kids will strong moral values tied inexorably to the Judeo-Christian ethic.

These "salt of the earth" people found meaning and purpose in the belief that God would see them through hard times if they kept His law, and served His purposes. They went to war with confidence in God for the same reason. Woven through the fabric of their lives was a transcendent theme of good over evil, right over wrong. Life had meaning precisely because they knew right from wrong.

Colorado, 2005. A death sentence is overturned because a Christian woman brought a Bible into the jury room. What would have been an insignificant oversight just a generation ago, is now justification for overturning the will of a jury. The instrument by which our ancestors pledged to tell the whole truth in courtroom testimony, (the Bible), is persona non grata not only on courtroom walls, but in the chamber where moral judgments are made. The next step is for defense lawyers to reject not only the written Word, but to prevent it's influence by disqualifying professing Christians and Jews from jury duty. This is why Democrats are turning red.

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