The Tenth Amendment
Reformation Lutheran Church
Anno Domini 2001
Position Statement: The Tenth Amendment
Statement
Article Ten of the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States very succinctly says: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The “States” refers to each of the states collectively or individually. They are sovereign states which cede only particular authorities to the federal government, known as the United States.
The federal magistrates have violated the Constitution and unlawfully usurped powers
which belong to the people. Accordingly, we declare that this federal government rules not by right but by force. The states have the right not only to disobey the edicts of the federal government, but to assert their own laws contrary to such decrees. We urge governors of states to act independently as sovereigns of their own states or in concert with other governors as united states in resistance to the tyranny of the United States.
Furthermore, we advise the church members under our care that 1) they may seek to avoid the payment of personal federal taxes, 2) that they may work for “lesser magistrates” (sheriffs, governors, etc.) which would rebel against the federal regime, and 3) that they may Lawfully work for the overthrow of the present regime by means of military service with the national guard (militia under the authority of a governor), or other locally organized militia under the authority of a lesser magistrate.
Explanation
The particular acts of tyranny have not been inconsequential. On the contrary, the tyrant has struck at ancient laws which had served to protect the weakest of humanity. The assault upon anti-abortion laws has resulted in an historically unprecedented genocide – a living-red-color illustration of the federal government’s placement of itself outside the bounds of legitimacy.
The disestablishment of state churches among our united States which rapidly occurred in the nineteenth century led erroneously to the grievous disestablishment of Christian law and religion in the twentieth century. This was not the intent of disestablishmentarianism; neither was it the intent of federalists who lobbied for the establishment of the federal government that states should lose their ability to legislate laws out of and on the basis of “religion.” Specifically, the Tenth Amendment restricts the federal government from usurping powers which are not specifically delegated to it by the states. As the powers of the weakened states have diminished since the Civil War, the usurpations by the federal government have increased to the point that the people can no longer govern themselves. We have witnessed a long train of abuses on the part of the federal government since it first legalized this crime under the malignant title “reproductive freedom.” Over the last three decades, laws which would prohibit or restrict the spreading of this crime of abortion have been passed by the various would-be self-governing, sovereign states, only to be nullified by the federal government through its usurpative judiciary. We repeat that statutes passed lawfully by state legislatures and signed by governors have been impiously nullified by a lawless federal judiciary. This federal government with one lawless decision decriminalized abortion and made into criminals of those who protect the weak and innocent. Federal magistrates have thus rebelled against the constitution and violated their oaths to uphold it.
The federal government’s current violations of justice exceed those of that world power which was inveighed against by the American colonies. In other words, the present states of the United States have greater cause now to throw off the tyranny of the federal government than did those who signed the Declaration of Independence in their rejection of British rule. It is a small thing to ask governors, then, to simply recognize their own right and duty to honor their own constitutions and statutes, enforce their own laws, and disobey unlawful federal edicts. While we do not speak as lesser magistrates, we do speak with the authority of the church of God and His word to address Christian citizens, including magistrates, with their scriptural and civil liberties and obligations.
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