Legal Lines with Locke Meredith

Guest: Mike Mcdonald, Show #1

Attorney Locke Meredith interviews Judge Mike McDonald, with the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge McDonald is from north Baton Rouge.  He practiced law for ten years and has been a district court judge for fifteen years in the 19th Judicial District Court. In 2001, he was elected to the First Circuit Court of Appeals.  Meredith, knowing Judge McDonald to be well versed in our national history, asks him what he thinks about our current age of tragic events like September 11, as well as the presence of things like National Day of Prayer, prayer in schools, and the faith of our nation in general. Judge McDonald recounts the faith of our forefathers, defending the Christian beliefs of George Washington, John Quincy Adams, and others.   People today say that these men were Deists or Unitarians, but Judge McDonald makes a strong case that moderns are simply trying to undermine the devout faith upon which this nation was built upon.  Futhermore, Judge McDonald points out that the idea of “separation of church and state” was not in the Constitution, but instead was only brought to national recognition in 1962 when a letter was discovered written from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association.  Judge McDonald talks about other documents that also reinforce the obvious fact that our nation has been basing its legal system upon a faith in God from its origin as a nation.  However, history, he says, is being rewritten, and newer editions of history books and encyclopedias are beginning to phase this out, year by year.

Meredith returns to the question of how our nation got so far removed from our historic national faith.  Judge McDonald brings to light more historic documents like the Northwest Ordinance and Washington’s farewell address that have now been removed from history books which very clearly show our nation’s faithful history.   Judge McDonald believes that we need to find a balance, as forced prayer is certainly not constitutional, but neither is prohibited prayer.  Judge McDonald believes churches, schools, and youth leaders, and students need to use the freedoms they have like “See You at the Pole Prayer,” cross-denominational Bible studies, and more involvement of youth leaders with kids to grow the faith of our nation.

Judge McDonald insists that we are being brainwashed to believe a history of our nation and the world that simply is not true.  The repeated saying that religious wars have killed more than anything else in history, he says is totally false.  Judge McDonald recounts a death count of least eighty million by atheists alone in the past seventy years.  Despite the fact that we are now in a “politically correct” America, Judge McDonald says there are still plenty of legal ways we can display our faith publically. We can display the Ten Commandments, displaying the Northwest Cruiser’s Flag, which says “Appeal to Heaven,” schools are even allowed to teach Bible in history class.

Schools and public places can even display the manger scene, so long as they also include Santa and reindeer.  We can have Bible studies in the workplace, even in governmental buildings.  Judge McDonald says we are simply not exercising our freedoms.  Lastly, Judge McDonald states that the chief problem with the crime in our nation is fatherless children, especially boys.  Growing up without a father, with a broken family, and not being taught proper morals, is destroying the youth of our nation.