How does this all square with the Apology to the Augsburg Confession Article XVI in which we are taught that we are to obey all laws even those written by pagans and in that same article we read "Carlstadt was crazy to impose on us Moses judicial laws." I believe the above article comes very close to trying to impose the Law of Moses on our nation. This is not what the church is to be about. We believe that the Lord our God owns and uses both realms, the left and the right and that when I am obeying the left hand I am obeying the Lord God for He is behind the mask of government. Paul did not say only obey a Christian but whatever the government is even raw pagan! I see no mandate whatever from the lips of Jesus or the Apostles to the effect that we as church are to rebuke the government in this particular matter and dictate to them. Why are we so on about moral issues which are not the exclusive property of the church? The church is about making disciples by baptizing and teaching. The exception clause that is often quoted in the book of Acts that we ought to obey God rather than men is very narrow. The authorities were asking them to directly disobey the unique commission given to the church and this the church cannot do but we are now applying this to anything that runs afoul of our conscience. I don't understand. And why the hearkening to the Constitution as some sort of authority for the church. I have yet to find "inalienable rights" in the Scripture or Confessions. This is an enlightenment notion. The Constitution is a decidedly godless document that purposely avoids the entanglements of church and state that blighted Europe. It seems we want to now go down that same road or to find our way back to some golden age in America when we were moral and then falsely equate moral with Christian. Arthur M. Casci