The Supreme Court of the United States

This past week has been a very discouraging and disappointing week for our country.  In a 6-3 decision Obamacare was upheld and essentially became the law of the land...unless congress ever has the intestinal fortitude to do what it was elected to do, and overturns it.  More than 30 states had objected to the use of federal governmental subsidies to people in the states that elected to not set up exchanges.  Obamacare had been written to exclude the subsidies as a way to "blackmail" the states into setting up the exchanges.   However, they had been given the subsidies anyway and when the states objected the suit made it all the way to the court.  For the second time the Federal Government lied about the bill in oral arguments and you would have thought that would have counted...but it counted for naught.  I can only conclude that Obama has "something" on Chief Justice Roberts or he really is a wolf in sheeps' clothing.  The  2010 and 2014 elections were both landslide elections putting Republicans in the House and Senate with a  mandate to overturn Obamacare, but, as yet, the Republicans are worse than the Democrats.  The Democrats enacted the awful piece of legislation without a single vote from any Republican, changed the rules of the Senate to do it, and against the will of a majority of the people...and twice the Republicans have ignored their mandate and cowered in their halls, fearing that the Democrats and press will label them bigots or hate mongers...or they too are wolves in sheep clothing!  I am so saddened by this decision and what it means for my children and grandchildren.  My father used to warn that our freedoms are being eroded every single day and I used to just smirk and think it was an over-exaggeration...but as I have gotten older I see ever more clearly what he meant and I realize it is happening much faster than when he was worried about it!  Free markets could have addressed all of the concerns regarding our health care system, but the truth is, the Democrats have been trying for a single payer health care system for decades and with Obama they got it!  It is nothing more that socialism but our electorate and youth are so ignorant about what socialism is that they cannot even see the dangers.  It's kind of like we, as a nation, are the frog swimming in the pan of water on the stove...slowly we will be boiled to death and we will have been oblivious to the dangers that lurked just below our pan.

As discouraging and disappointing as the decision on Obamacare is, the 5-4 decision on gay marriage literally changes America in an instant.  Our culture has been rapidly changing and in many ways this was predictable.  Sadly, there was a time in our history when our institutions actually aided the Lord, the Churches, and the righteous in creating a culture, laws, and environment that supported right, morality, goodness, and the Lord.  And, truth be told, this has been eroding for a long time but the momentum has gathered such speed that I doubt we, as a nation, will ever be able to return to the Lord, except for when He returns.  Perhaps this is the hastening that has been foretold.   I  don't know how things will go in the interim...I just know how it ends!  The sadness I feel is deep.  To the bone.  The fear I feel for us as a people is equally deep.  And the worry...oh it is sooooooo much easier to be young and oblivious and inexperienced and idealistic...unable to see the danger.  The trouble is that being young, oblivious, inexperienced, idealistic, and so trusting just makes one all the more vulnerable to the wiles of Satan and his minions because the dangers are so cleverly disguised, so unseen, so hidden, so lied about, so dangerous, so devastating...and so difficult to come back from.

It is fitting that this decision happened 20 years after 15 prophets had issued "The Family - A Proclamation to the World" with this,

"WE WARN that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

WE CALL UPON responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society."

I have often wondered and pondered how Noah must have felt as he heard the rain descend and what must have been wails of regret and sorrow from those who chose to not heed his prophetic warnings...or Abraham and Lott when Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed and Lott's wife was turned to salt.  And more importantly how must our loving Father in Heaven felt?  I think an incorrect understanding of our Heavenly Father and the Savior is becoming a real detriment us.  Often one hears that the Lord is all about love, as if there are no consequences for choices that are contrary to his divine laws.  It seems that those who wish to believe that God is all about love somehow believe that we can do whatever we want with impunity and cry foul when we suffer the results.  We are like petulent children, throwing awful temper tantrums, wanting what we want but not wanting to experience the bad results, then blaming the Lord for the injustice of it all!  LOL!   Or, as if because we think something else is a better idea or that there is a big enough group who concur with us, then we can change the Lord's mnd orr declare thhat somehow the results wont happen!  Oh our hubris!