Saturday, July 11, 2009

Personal Versus Political Morality (What's Not Good For One, Can't Be Good For the Other)

If our nation and its founding documents were provided by God, or established by 'the finger of Providence” as the founding fathers believed, then they must be rooted in Eternal and Gospel Principles.

Patrick Henry said, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians. Not on religion but on the gospel of Jesus Christ."

John Quincy Adams said that the signing of the Declaration of Independence formed "a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation...and that the Declaration was the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon the earth."

The Declaration declared that we would be guided by the “Law's of Nature and of Nature's God.”

We live and die physically by the laws of nature. We live and die spiritually by the law's of God.

John Locke (and others) deemed the laws of Nature's God to be, specifically, the Ten Commandments.

It is easy to deduce from this information that as Christians we are to use the Ten Commandments as our moral compass; and as a society and body politic we are to use the Declaration of Independence, guided by the Law's of Nature and of Nature's God, as our moral compass.

Here I am going to quote my friend and prior Congressional runner for Utah County, Jim Noorlander:

“In a republic based upon the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the majesty of God's law, we are reminded that lying is wrong. Stealing, or the redistribution of wealth through the taxing process known as socialism, is wrong. Why? Because it violates two natural-law commandments. Thou shalt not steal and thou shalt not covet. In order for the government to give it to me they had to first take it from someone else. The principle is this: if it is not right for me to do as an individual, it is not right for government to do it either. The creature, the government, cannot be greater than the creator, the people. Since government is force, the test is a simple one. Ask yourself the question, do I, as an individual, have a right to use force upon my neighbor to accomplish this goal? Do I have the right to take away his life, his liberty, or his property? If I do, then I may delegate that power to my government to exercise it in my behalf. If I do not have that right, I cannot delegate it.”

The purpose of government is to protect our natural rights, or unalienable rights, those rights given us by our Creator, those rights which no man hath authority to take away... the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Contrary to the way it is often understood, the purpose of our government is not to provide equal things, but to protect our equal rights.

Any 'wisdom' of our courts cannot usurp the authority of our God, though they try and often get away with it (at least in this life). You cannot take a vote on what has already been established by a higher authority. If everyone would stop debating all the issues and just look to our political Standard (the Declaration and Constitution), everyone could tell for themselves what is right and what is wrong and there would be no debate whether we like it or not.

Hosea 4:6 says, “my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” It is, in fact, this lack of knowledge that allows us to debate on abortion, civil rights, personal property, foreign aid, immigration, etc.

The government and the creators of the government (us) have forgotten through the ages what their moral compass is or ought to be. You cannot be a Christian and true disciple of Christ without knowing your Scriptures and following its precepts. Likewise you also cannot be a true American without knowing your Constitution and Declaration of Independence and following its precepts. Our current President wants to illicit the idea that there is no such thing as any real American – no common bond makes one an American. That is untrue to the nth degree.

Our country is being sold into Socialism in rapid strides and it is only happening because the people have lost their compass.

So to sum this all up and bring it back to Personal Versus Political Morality... Socialism (which is said to be the twin sister of Communism) breeds irresponsibility and unaccountability among citizens (which perhaps also breeds Socialism...). Another quote by Jim Noorlander, “Liberty and godless socialism are diametrically opposed because the cause of freedom is the cause of Christ.”

Socialism, or irresponsibility and unaccountability, does not work on a personal level, family level, and certainly not a governmental level. John Adams said that the Constitution of the United States is only for a “moral and religious people.” And the reason why has become obvious. We are so close to losing the very blessing that set us apart as a nation, to be a beacon and shining example to the rest of the world. We already have many examples of socialism equaling failure. How could we allow this to happen to us?

We've got to stop voting for the best bad choice and instead vote for the one(s) who will honor, sustain, and uphold the rule of law. Jesus would never cast his vote for any form of evil... why should we? Jesus would never justify a vote for evil in all the ways we do. He wouldn't do it. Period. Why should we? There are great men and women who run for offices in third parties that do uphold the rule of law. Jesus would not talk himself out of voting for them by thinking 'they'll never win'.

If we all stopped thinking that way, we may be surprised just how far we can go. Regardless, it is our absolute duty to vote our conscience. In following the Commandments, do we rationalize and wonder what we'll get out of it? No! We do it because it's the right thing to do. And the right thing to do is usually what provides us the freedom we yearn for.

As John Quincy Adams would say... “Duty is ours; results are God's.”



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