{"id":26647,"date":"2025-12-21T17:11:50","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T01:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=26647"},"modified":"2026-01-20T15:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:49:08","slug":"an-antebellum-constitution-christianity-and-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/12\/21\/an-antebellum-constitution-christianity-and-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"An Antebellum Constitution, Christianity, and Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Adam Serwer on how conservatives want an Antebellum Constitution;<\/li>\n<li>David French on why Christianity is a dangerous faith;<\/li>\n<li>Nicholas Kristof and Bart Ehrman on what Jesus would think of Christmas 2025.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>Undoing progress and dragging us back to the past.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/MCGjbRt1Ytp4kRssLzhz7IFCtiA=\/0x0:1920x1080\/976x549\/media\/img\/mt\/2025\/12\/Antebellum_Constitution_-1\/original.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Atlantic, Adam Serwer, 21 Dec 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/2025\/12\/antebellum-constitution\/685354\/\">Conservatives Want the Antebellum Constitution Back<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments are in trouble.&#8221;<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Last July, while on his way to his job as a security guard at a cannabis farm in California, George Retes was tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, and arrested by federal agents conducting an immigration raid. The agents ignored the license plate on Retes\u2019s car and the sticker on his windshield, both of which identified him as a U.S. Army veteran, and did not even bother to determine whether he was a citizen before strip-searching him and locking him up in a cell. Retes was detained overnight without any opportunity to call a lawyer or his family.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is where we are now: living in a police state run by white supremacist xenophobes, using ICE operatives drawn from the most thuggish elements of society.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Across the country, federal agents are flagrantly and casually disregarding Americans\u2019 due-process rights. And they have been remarkably forthright about how they choose their victims. As Gregory Bovino, a top Border Patrol commander, told a <a href=\"https:\/\/chicago.suntimes.com\/immigration\/2025\/09\/28\/ice-agents-spotted-downtown-on-michigan-avenue-along-chicago-river\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-recent-on-screen31117857_899=\"303679\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"303679\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">white reporter<\/a>: Agents were arresting people based on \u201cthe particular characteristics of an individual\u2014how they look. How do they look compared to, say, you?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And laying the blame on the current Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Constitution of the Roberts Court is not color-blind. It is a Constitution <a href=\"https:\/\/sherrilyn.substack.com\/p\/scotus-ice-raids-and-the-matter-of\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"349225\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">that permits discrimination<\/a> on the basis of race, but forbids alleviating discrimination on the basis of race. And over the next year, the Court will face more cases that could further erode both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, pushing America back toward what some on the right believe is the true, Antebellum Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments make up the Civil War and Reconstruction amendments. The Thirteenth abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime, but America needed to do more to prevent the resurgence of the slave-owning South\u2019s caste-based society. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments enshrined in the Constitution principles of universal male suffrage, nondiscrimination, and nonracial (birthright) citizenship. Although imperfect\u2014the vote for women was not included\u2014they were a crucial first step toward ensuring that the rights conferred by American citizenship would remain inviolate no matter where you were, and no matter who you were.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The article goes on: conservatives have fought back, all the way up to Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>A remarkably frank essay from David French.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/12\/21\/opinion\/21french\/21french-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, David French, 21 Dec 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/12\/21\/opinion\/christ-christmas-humility-kingdom-god.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-k8.aOEx.eCfNNPGatzJ_&amp;smid=url-share\">Christianity Is a Dangerous Faith<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Religion is one of the most dangerous forces on earth.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve ever encountered true fundamentalists, you know why. When you combine eternal stakes with absolute certainty, it produces the kind of people who are happy to be cruel in the name of God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>These two sentences sum it up. But of course there&#8217;s more.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In fact, they can view their cruelty as a form of kindness. If they treat you with decency, doesn\u2019t that make you comfortable in your sin? It\u2019s important for them to take opportunities to confront people when you can \u2014 in other words, to tell people that they\u2019re wrong, often in the most strident of ways. How else will they understand the gravity of their own sin?<\/p>\n<p>To the fundamentalist, disagreement is proof of apostasy. But it can be even worse than that \u2014 if you\u2019re wrong, then you might lead other people into error, and that makes you dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s one reason fundamentalists of all stripes are often such zealous censors. A fundamentalist can see every person who\u2019s wrong as a kind of Patient Zero in a potential pandemic of paganism. And don\u2019t think for a moment that fellow believers are spared the fundamentalists\u2019 ire. They\u2019re a chief target. They have no excuse for their errors, and they receive the most vitriol of all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He goes on to talk about the Christmas story. I&#8217;ve gift-linked the article; it&#8217;s worth reading. The implications of the Jesus story. And why religion is still dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Here is Bart Ehrman, a &#8220;New Testament scholar&#8221; and author of many books, including a couple I&#8217;ve actually read. This goes to why so many people cling to the Jesus story, while acting in ways contrary to what Jesus said.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/12\/21\/multimedia\/21kristof-pblj\/20kristof-pblj-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, Nicholas Kristof, 20 Dec 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/12\/20\/opinion\/jesus-christmas-religion.html\">What Would Surprise Jesus About Christmas 2025?<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[Kristof] <strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">You have a new book coming out soon, <\/strong><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\"><a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/Love-Thy-Stranger\/Bart-D-Ehrman\/9781668025031\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cLove Thy Stranger,\u201d<\/a><\/strong><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\"> arguing that Jesus taught a revolutionary message that transformed Western moral thinking. What was that message?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">[Ehrman] The heart of Jesus\u2019 message is that loving \u201cothers\u201d means caring not only for family and friends but even for strangers \u2014 whoever is in need, whether we know them or whether they are like us. This kind of altruism was not promoted \u2014 or even accepted \u2014 in the Greek and Roman worlds that Jesus came out of. But it is a view that completely transformed the thinking and ethical priorities of the Western world down till today.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>If Jesus were to time-travel and show up for Christmas 2025, what would surprise him the most?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think Jesus would recognize Christianity today. The idea that he was a pre-existent divine being who came into the world as a newborn is not found in any of his own teachings in our earliest Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and I think he would be flabbergasted to hear it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Because stories aren&#8217;t about truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adam Serwer on how conservatives want an Antebellum Constitution; David French on why Christianity is a dangerous faith; Nicholas Kristof and Bart Ehrman on what Jesus would think of Christmas 2025. &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; Undoing progress and dragging us back &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/12\/21\/an-antebellum-constitution-christianity-and-christmas\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-resistance","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26647"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26809,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26647\/revisions\/26809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}