Polemics

Getting inaccurate information is always a danger. I feel like I've been deceived on some things most of my life. I used to think that it was the right thing for us to be over fighting in Vietnam, to keep democracy safe. I used to think democracy was the best form of government, until I discovered the vast difference between a democracy and a republic, the latter being what our founders established and the former being what they feared. I used to think that Republicans were for small government, low taxes and the only hope for the pro-life movement. An honest look at history reveals that to be only rhetoric; their track record reveals a party committed to big government, corporate welfare, expanding taxes, and only an occasional crumb for pro-lifers, just enough to keep them on board.

Every Republican president in my lifetime has expanded the size and scope of the government at a greater rate than the Democrats. The president has the authority and moral responsibility to call up the national guard and close down every abortuary in the country.

Why have I become "anti-government?" I have not become "anti-government," but anti-illegitimate government. God ordained civil government, but He never intended for it to have limitless power. Any time government oversteps what God has intended, it is illegitimate. When David exercised his kingly prerogatives with Bathsheeba, it was illegitimate and God called him out; when the Nazis acted in an ungodly fashion, Dietrich Bohnhoffer courageously spoke out against them. If God intended governments to have limitless power, Bohnhoffer would have had no grounds for his accusations.

As Christians in America we have wholesale bought into the idea that anything our leaders do we must support because of Romans 13 and Render unto Caesar. Those are good passages and need to be adhered to, but they do not stand on their own. They must be interpreted with the rest of scripture. If all you have is Romans 13, Nathan had no business confronting David; Elijah would have been wrong to speak against Ahab and Jezzy. But nobody talks about what the Biblical standards are that we can use to judge civil government, because we don't believe that we are supposed to. Instead, we have a truncated Gospel that will bring personal salvation to individuals, but has little to say on whether or not we should go to war in Iraq. We are allowed to engage in polite discussion beforehand, but once the bombs start dropping we have to rally behind the president and our troops.

In my personal growth as a Christian I have come to see that the story of history is a story of two cities: Babylon and Jerusalem. I may someday write a book about it. ;-) Babylon has its roots in the tower of Babel. It represents the best efforts of man and coming together to form the perfect society. It is important to realize that God did not exact judgment on the Tower of Babel because it was immoral. It was probably a very moral and highly structured society. They weren't that many generations away from Noah. They still had mud on their boots. The judgment came because it was man's efforts to build a moral society without God, and that wasn't what God had in mind. The people were scattered, but the dream lived on. Ever since, all through history, we see stories of empires rising and falling in an effort to recapture the spirit of Babylon: a one world, highly centralized government, that creates a utopia on earth through the efforts of man without the necessity of divine redemption.

Hegemony by the USA to implement Pax Americana is the latest effort. Check out their site and you will find some amazing and ambitious goals for America to literally dominate the globe. These are not out of the mainstream radicals, but their founders include people like Dick Chenny and Donald Rumsfeld. Research the site carefully and you'll find plans to dominate the middle east long before 9/11 gave them the excuse to do so. Keep in mind while you read that this information is not coming from critics outside the government (i.e., anti-government propaganda), but they are the actual words of those who are currently in power. This is their plan to rule the earth. This is their mission from god (small 'g'). This is their vision for New Babylon (Dean's anti-government spin ;-).

God had Jerusalem in mind. I have done a lot of studying the past ten years on how the society of the Hebrews was structured and what God's intentions were. It is the story of Jerusalem: a very decentralized society where the highest form of government was self-government, each individual internally regulating his life according the the principles of the Ten Words. It is much closer to the form of government we once had, so that one of the founders, Madison maybe, said, "this government is for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other." In other words, it was relying on the self government of individuals to maintain law, order and decency; it was very de-centralized by design.

Think about the simplicity and beauty of those ten words. True, there were an additional 600 or so added to help define how they are implemented, but stack that up against the thousands and thousands of decrees and edicts coming from D.C. and Indy to regulate the smallest detail of our lives, down to wearing a seatbelt and how much tint you can put on your car windows. And such regulation is the inevitable result whenever a culture moves away from Jerusalem and towards Babylon. God says, you think my ten words are too restrictive? You think you can create a more libertine society? Man in his arrogance says yes and always ends up under far greater bondage to man-made laws.

God says, you think my asking for 10% is robbery? You think Babylon will take less of your money? A sure indication that a government has taken giant steps towards Babylon is by measuring how much money it extracts from its citizenry. Think about it: any government that demands more than what God asks for is arrogating to itself power and stature to exceed even that of the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. I am sure you are aware that our government taxes us at a total rate of somewhere between 40-50%. Historically, anytime men cannot keep at least 50% of what they earn they are called slaves.

If our government restricted itself to taxing us at a maximum rate of 10%, which the Bible alludes to be a maximum without being wicked, there would be no debate about having troops in more than 100 countries around the world; we wouldn't have the CIA installing governments like the Shah of Iran, Hussein, Khadafy, Noriega, Castro and a whole host of other despots that I can't remember. We wouldn't have the money. And it is this kind of meddling that caused 9/11 to happen in NYC instead of Geneva. But I am not allowed to say that without being called a "blame America Firster."

What's wrong with blaming America first? It is a very important Biblical concept in resolving conflict. Matt 7 tells us that we are to first get the log out of our own eye. In order to do that you have to first see that there actually is a log there, you must bring the accusation against yourself, "Hey, you've got a log in your eye," and then after you acknowledge that you can do something about removing it.

These are some of the fundamental principles involved in my coming across as "anti-government." And if you notice I've reasoned mostly from a Biblical perspective without resorting to outside sources, save the words of the devils themselves, PNAC.

Could some of my source material be tainted with inaccurate or distorted information? Possibly and probably, but I suspect less so than info that comes from the daily rag or the talking heads. I suspect that most of what I have claimed you and others already sort of know, or have an inkling of. The big difference in what I write is not the actual statistics, but in how I connect the dots to form a different picture. Now if there is a specific statistic that you are questioning I would be happy to try to dig up verification, and if you have doubts, it might be a good thing to challenge me on it, as I could very well be wrong. I've been wrong on a lot of things all of my life.

Much love to you.

Dean