The United States is rapidly moving toward a semi-constitutional oligarchy. What does this mean? Simply put, we have a written Constitution but the judicial and executive branches of our federal government pay little attention to it unless it promotes their agenda.

An oligarchy is a government run by a few people of power at the top. Let’s review several examples of federal overreach.

Recently, five lawyers of the Supreme Court upheld a fundamental pillar of “Obamacare.”  According to the health care bill, the citizens receiving federal subsidies to help pay for health care would have to apply for that assistance through the exchanges in each individual state.  Nothing could be clearer. However, for political reasons, five lawyers of the Court twisted the bill’s statement to say that one could get the subsidies by going through the federal exchanges as well.

The Supreme Court has upheld the aborting of unborn children, clearly a form of infanticide. It is now being reported that these babies’ body parts are negotiated over by entrepreneurs and the tax-supported organization, Planned Parenthood. Human life is no longer sacred to skeptics, humanists and moral relativists, who, through our school systems and popular media, have done a fine job of indoctrinating our youth in their skepticism by teaching that there is no supernatural realm, therefore, no omnipotent Creator.

In Uganda, abortion is illegal. One participating in abortion can be imprisoned for life. Here is how the pertinent section of the Ugandan law reads: “Any person who, when a woman is about to be delivered of a child, prevents the child from being born alive by any act or omission of such a nature that if the child had been born alive and had then died, he or she would be deemed to have unlawfully killed the child, commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for life.” Ugandans understand the sanctity of human life.

The practice of homosexuality is also illegal in Uganda. The U.S. formerly sent missionaries to Uganda; now, Uganda should send Christian missionaries to us.

Recently the Supreme Court ruled that homosexuals may marry anywhere in the U.S. The Constitution does not give the federal government the authority to change the definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman; this definition has stood for millennia. Such matters are constitutionally left to the states, not the federal government.

Here is a capsulated list of powers granted to the federal government by the Constitution: levy and collect taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce, set rules for naturalization and bankruptcy, coin money and regulate its value, punishment for counterfeiting, establish post offices, promote copyright laws, establish a court system, punish crimes at sea, declare war, maintain an army and navy, regulate the military, allow president to use militia for emergencies, maintain state militias, govern the Capital and U.S. possessions and make laws to carry out duties named above.

President Obama promised us that his health care plan would allow one to keep his current physician. Often this is not the case as we have learned.

The president also promised that if we liked our health plan, we could keep that plan. Again, this is not the case.

The president promised that “Obamacare” would lower per-family health costs. Forbes Magazine has found this to be untrue: “Between 2014 and 2022, the increase in national health spending (which the Medicare actuaries specifically attribute to the law) amounts to $7,450 per family of four.”

We must resist those who would have us live under an oligarchy whose constitution, designed to protect its citizens’ rights, is largely ignored.

The Rev. Fillmer Hevener, Ed.D., has lived in Buckingham County for 49 years. He has taught English at colleges and universities in Uganda, Maryland, California and Virginia. He is the pastor of Guthrie Memorial Chapel in Cumberland. His email address is fhevener@oilart.com.