On Monday, the James Dobson Family Institute (JDFI) endorsed the Convention of States (CoS) Project, urging Christians to defend the Constitution by reining in the federal government. As Constitution Day (September 17) approaches, JDFI has endorsed a convention to return to the Constitution’s checks and balances on the federal government.
“I beg the evangelical community to get involved in the Convention of States Project and understand what can be done to preserve and protect our fundamental rights,” evangelical leader James Dobson, former CEO of Focus on the Family, founder of the Family Research Council, and founder and president of JDFI, told PJ Media.
“This is something every individual and family can do today,” Dobson said. He argued that the Convention of States would enable evangelical Christians to defend key religious and personal rights against government encroachment. “This is my right to worship as I want. This is my right to raise my children as my spouse and I feel we should, and my right to assemble with others.”
Dobson admitted that “all of those things are protected in the Constitution,” but warned that “it is changing in Washington.”
In a joint statement, Dobson and other JDFI leaders denounced the “insidious power grab … underway in our nation’s capital for many years.” They warned that “unelected bureaucrats, activist judges, and the ever-expanding scope, reach and invasion of the federal government into the lives of all Americans has far surpassed what our Founders ever intended.”
“The James Dobson Family Institute endorsing the Convention of States Project aligns with the conservative, biblical idea that family advocates need to push back against Washington, D.C. bureaucrats forcing the sexual revolution agenda through government, particularly the Supreme Court,” Jenna Lynn Ellis, director of the Dobson Policy Center and author of “The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution: A Guide for Christians to Understand America’s Great Constitutional Crisis,” told PJ Media.
She mentioned “judicial activism beyond the margins of constitutional authority,” including such cases as Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), Roe v. Wade (1973), Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1991), and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). These cases pushed contraception, abortion, and same-sex marriage.
“A Convention of States has the ability to viably and ably address judicial activism and reign in the federal government’s usurpation of the Constitution’s original, limited powers,” Ellis explained.
Article V of the U.S. Constitution lays out the process of amending the Constitution. The process begins either when two-thirds of both houses of Congress agree to propose an amendment or when the legislatures of two-thirds of the states (34 states) call for a convention.
At the convention, each state would have one vote. If 26 states agree to any one amendment, that amendment would be sent to the states. Amendments must be ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states, or by three-fourths of the states in conventions.
As former Sen. Jim DeMint put it, “the founders anticipated this moment where we have a runaway government. They gave the states the ability to rein in the federal government through Article V.”
“Christians should understand clearly what a Convention of States is constitutionally intended to do, understand what the limitations are, and help in their states to call for a Convention of States,” Ellis argued. “For the Christian, we can believe in God and believe strongly that our government should protect our God-given rights, but genuine faith requires us to act on our belief also.”
Referencing James 2 (“faith without works is dead”), Ellis insisted that “faith is belief plus action.” She argued that “being faithful guardians of the freedoms God gives us in a nation whose government supports our right to protect our liberty is part of being loyal to God.”
“Parents have a duty to raise their children according to the truth, and protecting parental rights and all other rights by protecting our Constitution is part of being a Christian,” the Dobson Policy Center director added. “Dr. Dobson has been a key voice encouraging faith-based families to actively participate in our government.”
According to Ellis, Dobson “views the Convention of States as the next critical step to preserving our Constitution and freedom.”
Dobson and Ellis encouraged individual Christians and their families to visit ConventionofStates.com and sign up to join “a growing list of citizens calling for a return of federal power back to the states.” This would be the ultimate way to “challenge the entrenched powers in Washington.”
On Constitution Day, September 17, Ellis and Mark Meckler (a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots and advocate for the Convention of States) will join Dobson on his Family Talk radio broadcast for a 2-day discussion about the convention.
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