Editor’s Note: Once again I’m blessed to have my father, James W. Fletcher, as our guest blogger on “Family and Friends Friday.” Dad’s previous contribution was A Christmas Day Poem. As I said when introducing my father the first time, Dad has a knack for writing poetry. Some of his poems are humorous, while others are more serious and thought-provoking.
The following poem definitely belongs to the latter category. It is a new poem, it is an important poem, and it is a timely poem. Exactly 48 years ago today, on January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand in all 50 states. On January 13, 1984, President Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation designating January 22 as the first National Sanctity of Human Life Day. Christians all across our nation set aside this day to celebrate God's amazing gift of life, to commemorate the many precious lives that have been lost to abortion, and to commit themselves afresh to protecting human life at every stage.
This poem is my dad’s most recent contribution to that end.
PRECEDENT
by James W. Fletcher
Our legal system, long renowned,
And lauded as the best around,
Alas, still has a fatal fault,
To which we ought to call a halt.
I speak, of course, of precedent —
That oft disputed element
That binds our judges hard and fast
To that decided in the past.
The principle is plainly wrong —
My strong conviction all along.
So something’s sacrosanct somehow,
Since it was settled prior to now?
Weren’t all decisions made back then
The work of merely mortal men?
Did God with wisdom them endow
That’s greater than those living now?
Sure, past pronouncements ought to stand,
But only if they’re hand-in-hand
With truth that’s real and absolute,
Thus placing them beyond dispute.
But if a judgment’s rendered wrong,
It should not—must not—stand for long.
Judicial practice and review
Should out the false, retain the true.
The best example’s Roe v. Wade —
There never was decision made
So ill advised and deeply flawed,
Which half the country still applauds.
Abortion’s such a grievous sin!
To snuff the fragile life within!
They stretched the Constitution wide,
To find it therein justified.
I’m not a legal scholar, true;
But that does not negate my view.
I offer more than one defense:
The Word of God and common sense.
For He is Lord of life and breath,
And Who alone sets time of death.
So woe to those who would presume
To kill a baby in the womb!
So may my message give you pause,
Who sit atop the nation’s laws;
Reverse the ruling, I exhort,
Or answer to the Highest Court.