# Independence Day 2026 with Francis Beckwith

An episode of [Bible Answer Man Podcast with Hank Hanegraaff](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/569236334), 3 Jul 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72740797/bam20260703.mp3

On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (07/03/26), Hank notes that as Americans celebrate Independence Day this weekend, this year marking the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it is important to remind ourselves of the fundamental purpose of the United States as set forth in the preamble to the Constitution: “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”. To discuss what is essential to know about our particular Government, Hank introduces a special presentation of his conversation with Professor Francis Beckwith, author of Politics for Christians: Statecraft as Soulcraft.

## Transcript

[0:04] Speaker 1: Heard all across the United States, Canada, and around the world.
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[0:43] Speaker 1: equip dot org. The following program was pre recorded and
[0:49] Speaker 1: now here's Hank canagraph.
[0:51] Speaker 2: As Americans celebrate independent State, which commemorates the birth of
[0:56] Speaker 2: our nation, we do will to remind ourselves of the
[1:03] Speaker 2: fundamental purpose of the United States, as set forth in
[1:06] Speaker 2: the pre Emble to the Constitution, to form a more
[1:12] Speaker 2: perfect union, to establish justice, to ensure domestic tranquility, provide
[1:22] Speaker 2: for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure
[1:27] Speaker 2: the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity.
[1:35] Speaker 2: Today it is well worth reflecting on the fact that
[1:39] Speaker 2: as citizens in the United States of America, which is
[1:43] Speaker 2: a true liberal democracy, we can as yet form political parties,
[1:49] Speaker 2: we can vote, we can run for elected office, and
[1:53] Speaker 2: petition the government for a redress of grievances. Today's special
[1:59] Speaker 2: Guests flows for Francis Beckwith has well said that Christians
[2:04] Speaker 2: in our nation are uniquely blessed, blessed with with opportunities
[2:09] Speaker 2: to shape their communities in ways that were absent in
[2:14] Speaker 2: previous generations. Although the Bible does not say a whole
[2:19] Speaker 2: lot about the role of a Christian citizen and his
[2:23] Speaker 2: relationship to the state, Scripture does communicate principles that provide
[2:29] Speaker 2: us with insight on the scope of your and my
[2:34] Speaker 2: responsibility in the context of a liberal democracy. Christians have
[2:43] Speaker 2: to use their freedom wisely. They have to behave honorably
[2:48] Speaker 2: before those who have as yet to believe in our Lord.
[2:56] Speaker 2: And we must as Christians, respect the rule of law,
[3:02] Speaker 2: and not only that, but the authorities put in place
[3:06] Speaker 2: to protect such law, and that for the sake of
[3:11] Speaker 2: the common good. As Orthodox Christians living in America, we
[3:16] Speaker 2: are truly blessed to live at a time, to live
[3:20] Speaker 2: at a place where, unlike millions of fellow believers around
[3:25] Speaker 2: the world, we are yet free to worship God and
[3:30] Speaker 2: that in the open. Moreover, at this critical juncture in history,
[3:38] Speaker 2: we most fervently pray, pray that our freedom to worship
[3:45] Speaker 2: will continue in the days to come. I am delighted
[3:51] Speaker 2: to share with you or a conversation I had with
[3:54] Speaker 2: doctor Francis Beckwith, a man who publishes and teaches not
[4:00] Speaker 2: only philosophy and religion, but jurisprudence, politics, and ethics. He
[4:08] Speaker 2: is professor of philosophy as well as Church State Studies
[4:14] Speaker 2: at Baylor University, where he also serves as Associate director
[4:18] Speaker 2: of the Graduate Program in Philosophy an affiliate professor of
[4:25] Speaker 2: political science. He's the author of many books, including the
[4:30] Speaker 2: book we're going to focus on during today's broadcast, a
[4:33] Speaker 2: book titled Politics for Christians subtitled State as Soulcraft. Doctor
[4:43] Speaker 2: Francis Beckwith explains that in order to be wise stewards
[4:48] Speaker 2: of the gift of self government within the context of
[4:53] Speaker 2: liberal democracy, Christians must understand not only what their theol
[5:00] Speaker 2: pology teaches about their obligations to the wider community, but
[5:04] Speaker 2: also to understand both the nature of their government as
[5:09] Speaker 2: well as its political system. Those Christians have to be,
[5:15] Speaker 2: in the words of Jesus whise as serpents and harmless
[5:20] Speaker 2: as doves. So join me now, as I discussed what
[5:24] Speaker 2: is essential to know about our particular government with philosopher
[5:29] Speaker 2: and author doctor Francis Beckweth. Francis, let's talk about the
[5:35] Speaker 2: title of your book, state Craft as soul craft. What
[5:40] Speaker 2: does that mean.
[5:42] Speaker 3: Well, it's a shorthand way of saying what Aristotle taught,
[5:48] Speaker 3: the ancient Greek philosopher, and that actually was picked up
[5:52] Speaker 3: by most thinkers in politics often toil. Really the modern age,
[5:57] Speaker 3: and that is politics is not just about having an
[6:02] Speaker 3: orderly society, enforcing criminal law and contracts, which, of course
[6:07] Speaker 3: it does involve all those sorts of things. It also
[6:10] Speaker 3: is about making sure that people are at least allowed
[6:17] Speaker 3: to be good, not just good in terms of relation
[6:20] Speaker 3: to the civil and criminal law and the political institutions,
[6:24] Speaker 3: but being good citizens and good people. That is statecraft.
[6:29] Speaker 3: The role of the state is to sort of form
[6:33] Speaker 3: the soul. Now, of course, as a Christian, I don't
[6:37] Speaker 3: believe that government saves you. But of course, living in
[6:41] Speaker 3: a regime where let's say you have religious liberty, or
[6:45] Speaker 3: you live in a regime that is at least favorable
[6:48] Speaker 3: deferential to faith, you're more likely to flourish as not
[6:54] Speaker 3: only an individual, but as part of a community of
[6:56] Speaker 3: other individuals that are flourishing. So staatecraft is ohcraft is
[7:00] Speaker 3: simply saying that the law, the government to public institutions
[7:06] Speaker 3: make us who we are. And this is the part
[7:07] Speaker 3: that I think a lot of people don't grasp is
[7:10] Speaker 3: that even if the government says we're not interested in
[7:13] Speaker 3: soul craft, it does do it anyway. It's just the
[7:17] Speaker 3: very nature of a public institution to inform people about
[7:22] Speaker 3: what is good, true, and beautiful. Even if you happen
[7:24] Speaker 3: to live in a nation like most Western nations that
[7:28] Speaker 3: claim to be neutral on moral questions, the government really
[7:32] Speaker 3: can't be neutral on such questions. It's going to, in
[7:35] Speaker 3: one way or another, tell us what is good, true,
[7:39] Speaker 3: and beautiful, and it's going to shape the souls and
[7:41] Speaker 3: its citizens by doing so.
[7:42] Speaker 2: You mentioned the word politics just a moment ago. What
[7:46] Speaker 2: is the etymology of the word politics.
[7:49] Speaker 3: Well, politics comes from a Greek word polis, which means
[7:53] Speaker 3: the city, and so it involves in a sense the community,
[7:59] Speaker 3: and not just as a collection of individuals, but as
[8:06] Speaker 3: an entity that is greater than those individuals. So for
[8:11] Speaker 3: that reason, politics at least the way I define it,
[8:13] Speaker 3: in its way it's been traditionally understood, is more than
[8:16] Speaker 3: just let's say, electoral politics. So we think of, for example,
[8:20] Speaker 3: in twenty twenty yind presidential election, and it's just about politics. Well,
[8:26] Speaker 3: politics doesn't just involve elections and electioneering and voting. It
[8:30] Speaker 3: also involves the sorts of kind of informal rules that
[8:34] Speaker 3: arise in neighborhoods right or are local ordinances. Any sort
[8:40] Speaker 3: of association that involves some set of rules that transcend
[8:46] Speaker 3: the individuals is in a sense political in a sense,
[8:49] Speaker 3: the family is a kind of political institution in that sense,
[8:53] Speaker 3: and this is why Aristotle taught that the family is
[8:57] Speaker 3: sort of the beginning of the city, or the building
[9:00] Speaker 3: block of the city's in itself a city. In fact,
[9:04] Speaker 3: he says that it's not a perfect state because in
[9:09] Speaker 3: order to have a perfect state, you need more than
[9:11] Speaker 3: just one family. You need a collection of families that
[9:16] Speaker 3: have members who do all sorts of things that none
[9:18] Speaker 3: of us can do on our own. This is why
[9:21] Speaker 3: we have different professions and you know, jobs, and you
[9:25] Speaker 3: know talents and so forth, And of course political institutions
[9:29] Speaker 3: arise so that those activities can be protected and sustained
[9:34] Speaker 3: in an orderly fashion. But yeah, politics is, in terms
[9:37] Speaker 3: of its etymology, just refers to kind of the simple
[9:40] Speaker 3: word the city. But the city, you know, is not
[9:44] Speaker 3: in the sort of modern way of city, but just
[9:46] Speaker 3: any sort of collection of individuals that have a humanitarian
[9:49] Speaker 3: life together.
[9:50] Speaker 2: You know, politics is really connotative, isn't it. I mean
[9:53] Speaker 2: a lot of people will say I'm not a politician
[9:57] Speaker 2: because of all of the baggage now now that is
[10:01] Speaker 2: attached to that word, But if you think about a denotatively,
[10:05] Speaker 2: it gives you completely different perspective.
[10:07] Speaker 3: Yes, it's like when people say that they don't like lobbyists.
[10:10] Speaker 3: I joke with my students about this. Anytime somebody's running
[10:14] Speaker 3: for offices, you'll get something like a mailor or something
[10:18] Speaker 3: advertised on social media and says, I'm not like the
[10:21] Speaker 3: Zogo politicians. I won't be controlled by lobbyists. And I
[10:24] Speaker 3: will ask my students how many of you have money
[10:28] Speaker 3: in the bank, and of course they'll raise their hand
[10:29] Speaker 3: and go, oh, you have a lobbyist. No, your bank
[10:32] Speaker 3: has a lobbyist. Is that you're all students here at Baylor, right?
[10:35] Speaker 3: Guess what I hate to inform you? Keller has a lobbyist.
[10:39] Speaker 3: You know, it's part of the nature of living in
[10:42] Speaker 3: a free society in which we have representative government for
[10:46] Speaker 3: people to actually be involved with politics. I mean, what's
[10:49] Speaker 3: the alternative. You know, the alternative is tunny.
[10:53] Speaker 1: Don't go away. We'll be right back and rejoin. Hank
[10:56] Speaker 1: Catagraphs conversation with doctor Francis Beckwith What roles should Christian
[11:01] Speaker 1: citizens take in a liberal democracy? What is the proper
[11:05] Speaker 1: separation of church and state? What place should be made
[11:09] Speaker 1: for natural rights and the moral law in the governance
[11:12] Speaker 1: of a nation. How a nation answers these questions profoundly
[11:16] Speaker 1: impacts whether the government under which its citizens live is
[11:20] Speaker 1: just or unjust. In our increasingly post Christian world, followers
[11:25] Speaker 1: of christ must not relinquish politics to the unbelieving world.
[11:30] Speaker 1: Read Politics for Christians state Craft as soul Craft by
[11:34] Speaker 1: doctor Francis Beckwith. To receive your copy of Politics for Christians,
[11:39] Speaker 1: call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII and make a
[11:43] Speaker 1: gift to support the Christian Research Institute's life changing outreaches
[11:48] Speaker 1: eight eight eight seven thousand CRII or visit us at
[11:52] Speaker 1: equip dot org.
[12:01] Speaker 4: According to Politics for Christians by Francis beckwith A candidate
[12:05] Speaker 4: who embraces Christian ideals, even if he or she is
[12:08] Speaker 4: not a Christian, is a candidate that a Christian can
[12:11] Speaker 4: support with a clear conscience. Christians in America had the
[12:15] Speaker 4: historically unique power to enact laws that advance the common
[12:19] Speaker 4: good and must take this special obligation seriously by using
[12:23] Speaker 4: good judgment while voting and supporting legislation and political candidates.
[12:28] Speaker 4: This is not to say that Christians will always agree
[12:31] Speaker 4: on what policies and candidates represent the best option to
[12:34] Speaker 4: advance the common good, but there is no doubt that
[12:37] Speaker 4: Christians have a biblical mandate to advance it. To receive
[12:41] Speaker 4: your copy of Politics for Christians Statecraft as soul Craft,
[12:45] Speaker 4: call eight eight eight seven thousand CRI and make a
[12:49] Speaker 4: gift to support the Christian Research Institutes Life Changing Outreaches
[12:53] Speaker 4: eight eight eight seven thousand CRII or visit us at
[12:57] Speaker 4: equipped dot org. Truth Matters, Life Matters More details Hank
[13:04] Speaker 4: Hanagraf's personal pilgrimage from his long defensive truth to his
[13:08] Speaker 4: discovery that life matters more. Essentially, two books in one,
[13:12] Speaker 4: Part one equips Christians to defend the essential truths of
[13:16] Speaker 4: the historic Christian faith. Part two explains why truth is
[13:19] Speaker 4: necessary but hardly sufficient. That the map is not the territory,
[13:23] Speaker 4: the menu is not the meal. We are created to
[13:26] Speaker 4: experience life to the full through union with God in Christ.
[13:30] Speaker 4: Is there more to the Christian life than what you
[13:32] Speaker 4: are experiencing? Truth matters, Life matters more unveils the unexpected
[13:37] Speaker 4: beauty of an authentic Christian life. To receive truth matters,
[13:41] Speaker 4: Life matters more for yourself or as a terrific gift
[13:44] Speaker 4: to a friend or loved one, call eight eight eight
[13:46] Speaker 4: seven thousand CRI and make a gift to support the
[13:49] Speaker 4: Christian Research Institute's life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven
[13:53] Speaker 4: thousand CRI or visit us online at equipp dot org.
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[14:49] Speaker 1: equip dot org. Once again, that's equip dot org. Well,
[15:07] Speaker 1: let's rejoin Hank Hanagraph and doctor Francis Beckwith as they
[15:11] Speaker 1: continue their conversation.
[15:13] Speaker 2: You know, one of the most helpful parts of your
[15:17] Speaker 2: book Politics for Christians, at least from a personal perspective,
[15:21] Speaker 2: and other people have indicated this to me as well,
[15:24] Speaker 2: is where you explain what a liberal democracy is. A
[15:28] Speaker 2: lot of people when they hear the word liberal have
[15:31] Speaker 2: all kinds of ideas of what that might mean. And
[15:34] Speaker 2: the same thing is true with democracy. So explain both parts,
[15:38] Speaker 2: the liberal part and the democracy part of a liberal democracy.
[15:43] Speaker 3: Yeah, so let me just start with the second part, democracy,
[15:46] Speaker 3: because typically when you hear the word democracy, you think
[15:50] Speaker 3: of popular vote. Right, everything's run by majority vote, and
[15:54] Speaker 3: so people tend to think and rightfully. You'll also hear,
[15:59] Speaker 3: you know, I've listened to talk radio once in a while,
[16:01] Speaker 3: people say, we don't live in a democracy, And what
[16:04] Speaker 3: they mean to say is this, we don't live in
[16:07] Speaker 3: a nation that votes on everything. You know, we don't
[16:11] Speaker 3: vote on every law. That is to say, as individuals, right,
[16:14] Speaker 3: we vote people into office that represent us. That we're democracy,
[16:20] Speaker 3: at least the way it's been traditionally. Honestaid liberal democracy
[16:23] Speaker 3: doesn't mean that everything is voted on. It simply refers
[16:29] Speaker 3: to the kind of equality that human beings share. That
[16:33] Speaker 3: is to say, I am just as much a citizen
[16:37] Speaker 3: as the president of the United States. We don't live
[16:39] Speaker 3: in a monarchy. I oftentimes tell my students when I
[16:42] Speaker 3: went to law school twenty years ago, I called it
[16:45] Speaker 3: the Great democratizing Experience. And what I meant by that
[16:49] Speaker 3: was I went to law school. I had a PhD
[16:52] Speaker 3: in philosophy, and I thought I was going to just
[16:55] Speaker 3: ace everything. And I was humbled and I realized that
[17:00] Speaker 3: I was just one of fifty students and towards class,
[17:04] Speaker 3: we were all equal. So that sense of democracy is
[17:08] Speaker 3: of equality that we have. But it doesn't mean that
[17:13] Speaker 3: we vote on everything, because that would reduce to mob rule.
[17:16] Speaker 3: And this is why, at least of the United States
[17:18] Speaker 3: and in the American founding, we have a constitution that
[17:23] Speaker 3: limits the power of groups for the purpose of securing
[17:29] Speaker 3: that equality. So imagine if we did vote on everything directly,
[17:35] Speaker 3: you would have cases where if you had popular enthusiasms,
[17:39] Speaker 3: you could have tyranny right because you could have a
[17:41] Speaker 3: tiarity of a majority, and that would technically be at
[17:44] Speaker 3: leads to kind of rough democracy. But that gets us
[17:48] Speaker 3: to the first part of liberal democracy. The word liberal
[17:52] Speaker 3: really means liberty. That is, that there are certain fundamental
[17:57] Speaker 3: liberties that the government is ombligated to protect, and we
[18:01] Speaker 3: typically think of those liberties, at least in the United States,
[18:05] Speaker 3: in our Bill of Rights. But even prior to the
[18:08] Speaker 3: Bill of Rights being put into the Constitution, the understanding
[18:12] Speaker 3: was that the Constitution was to limit the federal government
[18:17] Speaker 3: so that communities throughout the United States and the differing
[18:21] Speaker 3: states can pass laws to advance the common good of
[18:26] Speaker 3: those communities. And so when I use the word liberal,
[18:28] Speaker 3: I don't mean it in the sense of like liberal
[18:31] Speaker 3: versus conservative, which is the kind of way in which
[18:33] Speaker 3: we talk in our popular politics. I mean liberal in
[18:36] Speaker 3: the sense that there are fundamental liberties and so in
[18:40] Speaker 3: a sense, everyone today, virtually everyone. I'm sure there are
[18:44] Speaker 3: likely exceptions to this. But today, if a person calls
[18:48] Speaker 3: themselves a liberal or a conservative, in a way, we're
[18:51] Speaker 3: all kind of liberals, right, I mean, we all kind
[18:54] Speaker 3: of believe that they are fundamental liberties. To be sure,
[18:57] Speaker 3: there are deep disagreements on certain issues, but that's the
[19:01] Speaker 3: way in which I explained liberal democracy. It's not simply,
[19:06] Speaker 3: at least the democracy part. It's not simply you know
[19:09] Speaker 3: this kind of fifty percent plus one is how we
[19:12] Speaker 3: determine the law. And in the context of America, the
[19:16] Speaker 3: founders understood that would be just a recipe for tyranny.
[19:19] Speaker 3: You needed a variety of other institutions that were not
[19:24] Speaker 3: the result of direct election. So we had sort of
[19:29] Speaker 3: the federal government, the US Senate, which at the time
[19:31] Speaker 3: was not directly elected. They were chosen by state legislatures.
[19:35] Speaker 3: And you had the representation direct representation in the House
[19:38] Speaker 3: of Representatives. You also had the court system. Plus you've
[19:41] Speaker 3: also had the different states, and so the founders kind
[19:45] Speaker 3: of assumed that human beings, if given too much power,
[19:50] Speaker 3: have a tendency to be tyrannical. Owned so they created
[19:53] Speaker 3: the system in which they thought it would be more
[19:55] Speaker 3: difficult for any one group or individual to take over,
[20:00] Speaker 3: so what some of us today or some people will say, oh,
[20:03] Speaker 3: we've got too much gridlock. The Sounders would say gridlock
[20:07] Speaker 3: is good because gridlock means that people will be forced
[20:10] Speaker 3: to have to negotiate disagreements in a way that would
[20:17] Speaker 3: result in compromise and so forth. Of course, the question
[20:20] Speaker 3: today is have we truly sustained that kind of government?
[20:24] Speaker 3: And that's an argument that people are currently having to
[20:28] Speaker 3: be sure.
[20:29] Speaker 2: We often as Christians talk about the art and science
[20:32] Speaker 2: of biblical interpretation. Is there an art and a science
[20:36] Speaker 2: to interpreting the Constitution properly? And are there different perspectives?
[20:41] Speaker 2: Some people are originalists, other people think that the Constitution
[20:45] Speaker 2: is a living document. Talk about that a little bit.
[20:48] Speaker 3: Yeah, there's different schools of thought on that. The view
[20:51] Speaker 3: that I'm sure most of your listeners have heard about
[20:54] Speaker 3: is called originalism, which is a view that's associated with
[20:57] Speaker 3: the late Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Amy Cony Barrett,
[21:02] Speaker 3: and it's the view that we should interpret the Constitution
[21:07] Speaker 3: as it was originally understood. A lot of people misunderstand this.
[21:13] Speaker 3: They think that it's the view of original intent, and
[21:17] Speaker 3: in fact Scalia himself did not like the term original intent.
[21:20] Speaker 3: Because his thinking was, it's not what the authors or
[21:23] Speaker 3: founders intended, it's what the words meant. So to give
[21:29] Speaker 3: an example, imagine when the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, where
[21:34] Speaker 3: it says that once life, liberty, or a property cannot
[21:36] Speaker 3: be taken without the process of law. And then there's
[21:39] Speaker 3: another part that says that the government has an obligation
[21:42] Speaker 3: to enforce the law equally. It's sometimes called the equal
[21:45] Speaker 3: protection Clause. Now imagine that there were some people, clear
[21:49] Speaker 3: there were people who wrote who are involved with the
[21:52] Speaker 3: Fourteenth Amendment who thought that the equal Protection Clause permitted
[21:56] Speaker 3: racial segregation, and so they're intent was that it not
[22:01] Speaker 3: be extended or thought to make racial segregation illegal. Well,
[22:06] Speaker 3: it took almost one hundred years, but in nineteen fifty
[22:09] Speaker 3: four the Supreme Court said that's precisely what it means.
[22:13] Speaker 3: That is, people should be treated with equal protection under
[22:17] Speaker 3: the law. And even though there were clearly people that
[22:20] Speaker 3: wrote the Fourteenth women who were segregationists or would have
[22:23] Speaker 3: been segregationists, it doesn't matter what the words mean, not
[22:29] Speaker 3: what people intended them to me right, or what they
[22:34] Speaker 3: speculated how they'd be applied in the future. So I
[22:38] Speaker 3: think another example, I use it my students in class.
[22:40] Speaker 3: Imagine you're asked by your boss. Let's say you're the
[22:44] Speaker 3: partner in a law firm, and you're asked by the
[22:46] Speaker 3: senior partner to chair a search committee for a new hireing.
[22:51] Speaker 3: And the boss comes in he said, I want you
[22:54] Speaker 3: to hire the best person. Oh and by the way,
[22:56] Speaker 3: my son is applying. So when he says, in his
[22:59] Speaker 3: mind the best person, his intent is that you hire
[23:02] Speaker 3: his son. Well, it turns out, let's say you don't
[23:05] Speaker 3: hire his son, because it turns out he's not really
[23:07] Speaker 3: the best person. So it's what the words meant at
[23:12] Speaker 3: the time, not what was in the head of the
[23:16] Speaker 3: people who authored the fourteenth Amendment. And this is not
[23:23] Speaker 3: to say that there aren't going to be disagreements among originalists.
[23:26] Speaker 3: There are, to be sure. Now some of the other views.
[23:29] Speaker 3: There's a view that's associated with some more liberal justices,
[23:34] Speaker 3: which is the view that it's sometimes called the living
[23:37] Speaker 3: constitution view, the term coined by the late Justice Brennan,
[23:42] Speaker 3: and it's the view that the Constitution sort of has
[23:46] Speaker 3: to change with the times. And what's unusual about that view.
[23:51] Speaker 3: I think a problem with that view is that it
[23:54] Speaker 3: tends to buy into this understanding that history is always
[23:58] Speaker 3: getting better, progressing. So to give you an example from
[24:03] Speaker 3: Justice Brennan's reasoning, in a couple of cases involving the
[24:08] Speaker 3: death penalty, he argued that the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits
[24:13] Speaker 3: cruel and unusual punishment, he says, well, today we recognize
[24:18] Speaker 3: the death penalty as being cruel and unusual, so therefore
[24:23] Speaker 3: the death penalty is unconstitutional. Now, Justice Clea has pointed out,
[24:28] Speaker 3: or pointed out in civil writings, the Constitution itself presupposes
[24:31] Speaker 3: the death penalty. It says that the government can't take life, liberty,
[24:35] Speaker 3: or property without due process of law. Well, if you
[24:38] Speaker 3: can take life with due process, then clearly the death
[24:41] Speaker 3: penalty is accepted. And the other problem with Blennan's view
[24:47] Speaker 3: is that he's imagining that somehow we're going to become
[24:51] Speaker 3: a more gentler and kinder culture as time develops. But
[24:56] Speaker 3: if let's say we become a more barbaric culture, and
[25:01] Speaker 3: somebody says, well, I don't think cruel and unusual should exclude,
[25:06] Speaker 3: you know, torturing people, because after all, you know, we're
[25:11] Speaker 3: progressing and we believe torture is good. Now, So Scalia's
[25:15] Speaker 3: point is that we have to look at what was
[25:17] Speaker 3: meant by cruel and unusual when that was passed at
[25:21] Speaker 3: the end of the eighteenth century, because it may not
[25:24] Speaker 3: be the case that Justice Bretan's future where we become
[25:30] Speaker 3: less barbaric, is in fact going to be the case.
[25:32] Speaker 3: Better that we tightly teather the meaning of that amendment
[25:36] Speaker 3: to what was intended at the time. If in fact
[25:39] Speaker 3: we want to change it, we have an amendment process
[25:42] Speaker 3: to do.
[25:43] Speaker 1: Then thank you for listening to the special edition of
[25:46] Speaker 1: the Bible answer Man Broadcast with Hank anagraph to hear
[25:50] Speaker 1: this handk unplugged podcast interview with Professor Francis Beckwe in
[25:54] Speaker 1: its entirety. Go to equip dot org, iTunes, or wherever
[25:58] Speaker 1: you listen to your favor podcasts. In appreciation for your
[26:03] Speaker 1: vital gift to help strengthen and expand the life changing
[26:07] Speaker 1: outreaches of the Christian Research Institute, Hank would like to
[26:11] Speaker 1: send you doctor Beckwith's book Politics for Christians Statecraft as
[26:16] Speaker 1: soul Craft. Simply call eight eight eight seven thousand CROI
[26:21] Speaker 1: and make a gift to support CRI's life changing outreaches
[26:25] Speaker 1: eight eight eight seven thousand CROI or visit equip dot org.
[26:31] Speaker 1: That's equip dot org. You can also write to Curi
[26:36] Speaker 1: at Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina,
[26:40] Speaker 1: two eight two seven one. The preceding program was pre recorded.
[26:45] Speaker 1: The Bible answer Man Broadcast is funded by listeners like you.
[26:49] Speaker 1: We're on the air because truth matters and life matters more.
[27:01] Speaker 4: According to Politics for Christians by Francis Beckwith a candidate
[27:05] Speaker 4: who embraces Christian ideals, even if he or she is
[27:08] Speaker 4: not a Christian, is a candidate that a Christian can
[27:11] Speaker 4: support with a clear conscience. Christians in America had the
[27:15] Speaker 4: historically unique power to enact laws that advance the common
[27:19] Speaker 4: good and must take this special obligation seriously by using
[27:23] Speaker 4: good judgment while voting and supporting legislation and political candidates.
[27:28] Speaker 4: This is not to say that Christians will always agree
[27:31] Speaker 4: on what policies and candidates represent the best option to
[27:34] Speaker 4: advance the common good, but there is no doubt that
[27:37] Speaker 4: Christians have a Biblical mandate to advance it. To receive
[27:41] Speaker 4: your copy of Politics for Christians, Statecraft as soul Craft,
[27:45] Speaker 4: call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII and make a
[27:49] Speaker 4: gift to support the Christian Research Institutes, life changing outreaches
[27:53] Speaker 4: eight eight eight seven thousand CRII, or visit US at
[27:57] Speaker 4: equipped dot org

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