PDF Format – 1999 Voters Guide

Side Bars – Who We Are – The Name – Christian, not Conservative – A 19th Century Christian Theologian’s Comments on Secular Conservatism – Crime and Restitution – Juries: Past and Present – The Notorious Ox and Safety – Self-Incrimination and the Bible – Judges versus Computers – Open Pits and Paying Your Own Way

Ballot Recommendations Summary Measure 68 Measure 69 Measure 70 Measure 71 Measure 72 Measure 73 Measure 74 Measure 75 Measure 76

Self-Incrimination and the Bible
Like the jury system, protection against self-incrimination is an historical and Constitutional right in our country. To “take the fifth” is to assert a right guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. The Bill of Rights says no man “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.”

This right has a long history, with deep roots in the Protestant Reformation. William Tyndale, martyred in 1536, helped grow the roots of Reformation when he produced the first English translation of the Greek New Testament, printed in 1525. Three years later, he wrote a book entitled The Obedience Of Christian Man. In that book, Tyndale strongly opposed what he described as the work of tyrants who would break into the heart and consciences of men and compel them to swear. He said that those who would force men to testify against themselves were “Antichrist’s disciples.”

Foxes’ Book Of Martyrs is a gruesome history of the martyrdom of the period of the Reformation. But it also taught the millions that have read it that men should oppose to the death being forced to testify against themselves.

These martyrs had before them the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 26:63 and 27:12-14, the epitome of obedience to authority refuses to testify, refuses to answer the questions put to him by the Sanhedrin and Pilate.

According to R. J. Rushdoony, in his monumental work Institutes of Biblical Law, “the right of citizens to be protected from the power of the state to compel their self-incrimination does not appear outside of the biblical legal tradition.” When the right to not be forced to testify against oneself is diminished in a society, torture and coercion increase.

While there are a variety of Biblical texts dealing with trial procedures and witnesses, confession is never cited in God’s law. Achan’s confession in Joshua 7 is a voluntary one, and the idea of torturing or compelling a man to obtain his confession is antithetical to Biblical justice. H. B. Clark, a former state legislator, wrote a book entitled Clarke’s Biblical Law, which was then published in Portland, Oregon in 1944. It is an excellent consolidation of various portions of Scripture into a statute book, with many ancient legal citations. He notes that under ancient Talmudic law, “the accused was encouraged to speak on his own behalf, but not to incriminate himself. Conviction could not be had on a confession alone, without corroborating testimony or witnesses.” He then gives as his citation “88 Case and Comment (1932) No 2, P. 5.”

Measure 73 attempts to remove a portion of this ancient and biblical legal tradition, and for that reason, we oppose it.

This voters' guide produced by Parents Education Association, PAC.