The Christian, liberty and the state

The Christian, liberty and the state
By Bob Livingston
The suppression of human liberty is always created upon or out of distorted reality. Understanding this, we are not surprised when we learn of a new report published in thePersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin that found that when people get their basic necessities from government, government becomes their god.

Researchers found that in countries where government services were "better" (what they meant by better was never defined), people were less "religious." This was true among the studied countries and among states in the U.S. Researchers also discovered that during the period 2008-2013, better government services in the states in a specific year predicted lower religiosity one to two years later. 

Most people believe that social welfare programs are designed to help the needy and the downtrodden despite 50 years of evidence that U.S. welfare programs have done just the opposite. In fact, social programs are destructive to the family unit. And this report indicates shows they are destructive to the Church (and by Church I'm referring to the Church established on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, not the Roman Catholic Church).

Social welfare programs are destructive to the individual and the family unit because they absolve the parents of their parental responsibilities and promote dependency on government. There are now "families" that for two or three generations have been wards of the state. Many if not most of them are without a male head of household. They depend upon the state to provide their sustenance, their housing, their transportation, their healthcare and their entertainment. They know nothing of individuality or personal responsibility.

Government's true goal here is to gain power, control and wealth under the veneer of good deeds and charity. It is a system of government altruism.

This altruism has a double meaning. To the unsuspecting public it appears good, but it is hypocrisy with a hidden agenda to cover evil. It is the philosophical basis of democracy and benevolent totalitarianism.

Unveiled, altruism is deceit, egotism, love of money, criminal politics, "patriotism", nepotism among the elite nobility, brotherhood of secret societies, manipulation of the public mind and its production. It hides government authoritarianism, theft and income redistribution – the system of socialism/communism/fascism – under a veneer of good works.

Statists/progressives often argue that socialism is a Biblically-inspired form of government, citing Jesus' commands to help the poor and the example in Acts 2:44-45. That belief is a gross mischaracterization of those passages and God's plan.

This government alltruism is the very foundation of statist propaganda that the individual must place his interests, including his property, beneath the "need" of the collective (state). It is a deceptive ploy by government to play upon Christian values of service and servitude as taught by Jesus Christ. But it is not service to benefit others — as Christ taught — that the state seeks, but service and sacrifice to the state. In our time this is called "in the public interest" or "common good." The terms "public interest" and "common good" always translate to "in the government interest."

While Christ commanded us "to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" (Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17, Luke 20:25) and Paul commanded us to "be in subjection to the governing authorities" (Romans 13), that does not absolve us from our individual responsibility to help the stranger (Matthew 25:35-40) and the needy saints (Romans 12). This is to be done out of a sense of love rather than a sense of coercion.

But social welfare programs create a belief in the public mind that since our earnings are expropriated by the state and distributed to the "poor," we have done our duty to the poor when we "pay our taxes." If this is our attitude, then we are falling short of God's command to both help the poor and downtrodden and spread the Gospel of Christ.

The goal of government is to coerce the people into a regimented, docile and obedient mass under a propaganda system based on altruism and self-sacrifice, and so it seeks to undermine the individual, the family unit and the basic tenets of Christianity. The result is that Christianity still has its name, its churches and its forum, but it no longer has its spirit.

And man no longer has his liberty – from the state or from sin.

If Christians fulfilled their obligations – individually, through the Church and through various charities (church-based and secular) -- there would be no need for government welfare programs and therefore no perceived need for confiscatory plunder to fund these programs. This would not only limit government power and expand individual liberty, it would exalt God above government in the minds of the people.


Bob Livingston