| Government Involvement |
[17 Dec 2004|02:36pm] |
I've been reading in a book some of you may know. It is an "Uncle Eric" book called Are You Liberal? Conservative? or Confused?. Richard Maybury (the author) is, what he calls, a juris naturalis - which is pretty close to the Libertarians. I've also been reading in Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You.
Now, my good friend and I refer to where we stand on political issues as Armchair Anarchy. I believe in the political ideal of anarchy, but with the reality that humans are involved so government should basically be limited to one purpose: to destroy itself. (Do not confuse this political term with the common usage - read up on rational-anarchy, or free market-anarchy). This is pretty much where "Uncle Eric" sits.
"That government is best which governs least." - Thomas Jefferson
As I've been reading in Maybury's book, he explains how political power is basically evil. 1 Samuel 7-8 shows where God shares about what government is, evil. All humanity is basically under what is referred to as Natural Law, that is 1) do what you say you will do, and 2) do not encroach on other people's liberty or property. Governments are just like any other human institution except for one thing: the ability to violate both these laws.
"It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately." - Thomas Jefferson
As I've been reading Tolstoy, he explains that the purpose of government was to protect people from each other, but it fails in that it does more harm to the people than individuals ever could. I pondered this thinking about how much harm people have committed to each other without the guise of "government" compared to how much devastation is wrought by governments, and in the name of governments. It's pretty ridiculous to claim that just as much, or more apocalypses would have become if there were no government in place.
Maybury explained fascism is when a government does what it feels is necessary instead of what is right. He compared it with how the government has been running here in the States for many years now.
So if we grab all of this, and we analyze it, we see that government should operate under what is "right."
Recently Pinochet of Chile was arrested and will be brought up on charges for acts he oversaw while he was the dictator of Chile. He allegedly had killed a few thousand people for certain offenses against his reign. I was thinking about how absurd this was... These people were dangers to the Government. Isn't it necessary to get rid of dangers? What country doesn't suppress uprisings against them? Pinochet created a government that was pretty strong, their economy was pretty good, he just controlled a lot. So who decides at what level you can operate? France, England, India, the United States? Where is the line between a few people being killed by police in a protest and Tienanmen Square? Where is the line between sentencing one man to death for treason and 3,000? Who says what conduct is OK in someone else's country? What are a couple thousand deaths for the greater good of millions of other citizens? It's ok to kill people in a foreign country for the good of yours, but it's wrong to kill people in your own country for the good of all?
"How many does it take to annul the commandments of God, and render that lawful, which HE has forbidden? How many does it take to metamorphose wickedness into righteousness? One man must not kill. If he does it is murder. Two, ten, one hundred men, acting on their own responsibility, must not kill. If they do, it is still murder. But a state or nation may kill as many as they please, and it is no murder. It is just, necessary, commendable and right. Only get people enough to agree to it, and the butchery of myriads of human beings is perfectly innocent." - Adin Ballou
What government is good, and what political power isn't corrupt?
So I've been taking the long way around to ask, ultimately, what is the Christian's measure of involvement is government? Can we be involved at all in government?
2 Corinthians 6:14, 15
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and [Government]? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
How does this verse relate to our commitments and our social duties given by the governments? Doesn't the entire government ideal tie us with everyone around us, believer and unbeliever alike? A bond we often hold higher than that of the Church...
I think it would do us good to understand what Jesus meant by "My kingdom is not of this world" as we are its subjects foremost. Paul tells the Corinthians that there are many kings, but God is our King. Isn't it our goal to please our Father, not to please the world?
1 Peter 2:11-12
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
1 Samuel 8:10-12, 19-20
Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots... But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles."
|
|
full