So the blah blah comes up again and again about what they call the fix, a change, finally.
Here is a blanket statement for you: The problem is self-government.
If people will not govern their own actions, necessarily the government needs to do it for them. If people do not have a baseline for right and wrong, necessarily a government needs to provide that.
Can you believe that book Deuteronomy in the Old Testament—Moses giving the Israelites all those RULES? The word “rules” as referring to behavior modification, has a distinct negative connotation. But Mo made no bones about it—if you follow the rules, blessing comes, if you do not, curses. He didn’t just tell them once, he HAMMERED them with this.
And God said the Israelites did NOT need a king over them. God was their king. They had been given the baseline for right and wrong. No king necessary. Each man acting in accordance with the law is the blessing of untold freedom. Freedom from the necessity of even needing government.
Oh, you say we are not perfect enough to make this work. And we need the coopertive effort of a government. True enough. But could it be our country is slipping into more and more government because people have lost the compass of those rules? Do we, even as Christians, not have a basis for acting rightly, except for governmental laws which forces it out of us? Or else.
Can we get that freedom back? Do we want to?
Daiquiri says
I desperately want that freedom back. Our government gets bigger and bigger – presumably for our own good….but our freedoms and legal right to make our own good choices has gone right out the window!
This trend makes me fear for our country’s future. History is a great teacher…the bigger the government, the harder the fall. Where are we headed?
Can we get that freedom back? That’s another question entirely. Assuming that most people want it back (and I don’t necessarily think that’s the fact – it seems folks find comfort in being so heavily governed)…it’s not going to happen in the next 4 years, that’s for sure.
Thanks for linking up to STLS this week – I’m thrilled to have your participation 🙂 For future reference though, please link directly to your STLS post instead of to your blog home address 🙂
Pig Woman says
This comment has been removed by the author.
Goat says
SSSSSSSSNAKES…. Yessssssss, ssssnakesssssssss…
My friend Deac-in-training had a brother who put snakes in a hole deep and steep enough that they couldn’t crawl out. The snakes disappeared one by one…this is a riddle, kids…what happened?
Spiritual application?
Pig Woman says
This comment has been removed by the author.
Pig Woman says
This comment has been removed by the author.
Craig and Bethany says
I keep thinking about that comment by Pig Woman a while ago about how God’s rules are really more like love notes to us with blessings and pleasures, gifts, wrapped up inside. My new motto is: Rules, a treasure hunt.
All the while, entwined with the rules, Moses had actually been passing dignity to the people, the dignity of self-governing – the dignity of resisting the urges and instincts of our animal bodies.
I suppose we can’t really grab onto that as a nation until we have a collective sense of dignity and by necessity of shame. Yet, how can we have even shame with no reasonable consensus of right and wrong. This is where I think the fighting is fiercest for the heart of our people.