I have been involved in the formation of a new state denominational religious association and served on two church constitutional revision committees, and while I don’t claim to be an authority on constitutional law, I think I know about as much about the subject as some Florida Supreme Court Judges do. A few comments;
Tom and Steve are serving as the organizational spearheads. I have no object with either of them. When the state religious organization mentioned above held its organizational meeting, a retired Air Force General layman and two clergy served in the same capacity. They called the meeting together and proposed a procedure for electing a council to head the elections of an interim government. This caused a problem in the minds of some people. They wanted to nominate their own leaders from the floor so it would not appear to look like a railroad job. Three hours later, they were right back where they started with 12 of the 15 people they started out with, but they were satisfied. They had cleared the air and set the tone to remove any taint of a controlling group or person.
Second: After serving on two constitution committees, here is the way I see things. The most important and first thing any new organization must do is to have a clear statement of the founding principles. This has to come first. Without this clearly set forth, there is no basis on which to proceed but a great basis not to proceed.
Third: Once the statement of principle is outlined, then comes the constitution and by-laws to establishment a government by which to enact the principles outlined in the founding principles.
The focus can never be taken away from the statement of founding principles. Once this vision is lots, the organization is just another bureaucracy.
As an example of how things can get out of hand, look at the constitution of this nation. The statement of faith is the defining and uniquely American Principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence. The Revolutionary War was fought over these principles, not over the US Constitution. The constitution was enacted to set up a government to assure that these founding principles were protected and made the American way of life. What has happened? The US Constitution has become the issue and has been on ever side of every major issue in the history of this country and has totally lost sight of the reason it was created. That is what is driving the discussion we are having right now. For example, the US Constitution has said slavery was legal, then said it was illegal. It said women could not vote, and then said women could vote. It said it was legal to sell alcohol, then said it was not legal, then said was legal. It said human life was a basic right, and then said the unborn could be murdered if they causes an inconvenience. It said we had freedom of association, than it said we don’t have freedom of association. It said Africans were 2/3rds of a person then said they were a full person. In short, the U.S. Constitution in the hands of the wrong people can be used to justify any act from slavery to murder and has all to often.
What is my point? The point is that when you lose sight of your founding principles or are born under a cloud, the governing body and constitution becomes the problem. For that reason, the founding principles must be written in blood and they must be written in blood in the beginning, and that is now.
I am all for everything Tom outlined in his posts, but I want to see the final product before I send my money in. If we don’t go by the rules, we are no better than the people that caused this situation in the first place.
