Politicians are like diapers They should be changed frequently
By Buddy Hanson The Covenant News ~ February 09, 2011
It's Machiavellian for today's civil rulers to "bribe" the electorate
by showering them with social services and building roads in their
communities, and to exercise long term control through their most
effective weapon, state-mandated government schools. The schools are
providing indoctrination into dependence upon state-provided benefits
and services and are, in effect, raising "wards of the state" who are
incapable of governing themselves or thinking for themselves. It's
Christian for parents to be in charge of, and to directly control the
education of their children. In contrast to the false education
provided by government schools, true education instructs children in
the meaning of life and how to become consistent servants of Christ by
incorporating biblical ethics into their everyday lifestyle. True
education fosters self-governing capitalistic ethics instead of
dependence upon either socialist or fascist state-provided services.
Machiavelli's Principle 9 states, "The wise prince will seek means by
which his subjects will always and in every possible [situation] have
need of his government, and then they will always be faithful to him."
In stark contrast to manipulating voters in order to stay in office,
consider the Christian principle that obeying the Lord will not only
keep one in office, but will bless the society as well:
"Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth." Deuteronomy 28.1
Without an absolute standard by which to conform their legislation, political parties focus on partisan issues. As the decibels of demagoguery rise with each piece of proposed legislation, the debates ultimately come down to, "It's us vs. them." Instead of being driven by whether the proposed legislation is constitutional, or ethically the right thing to do, the consideration among both parties is whether or not the proposed legislation will attract enough votes to keep them in office.Sadly, in too many cases, the issue comes down to ethnic voting blocks, instead of Christian ethics.
Statesmen have been replaced by politicians, and the few remaining statesmen deserve our support, because certainly they must see themselves as being on an island surrounded by sharks. The tactics of a non-Christian civil ruler boils down to finding a way to make the voters think they can't do without his governance. One way of doing this is to break the Eighth Commandment by "stealing" taxpayer money from another district and using it to build roads, hospitals, and/or to provide a wide array of social services in his district. Congressmen particularly like to brag, "For every dollar you sent to Washington, I was able to return $2 for community programs." Apparently no one seems to mind that their representative has just robbed the tax revenues from another state. Perhaps the moral (no pun intended) to this is, "Keep me in office because I am a very effective thief." Machiavelli's portrayal of civil rulers is drastically different from the one Paul describes in Romans where he says they are "appointed by God" to be "His ministers" to us "to benefit us," not take advantage of us.Hear his inspired words.
"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. ... For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. ...For because of this yo also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing." Romans 13.1, 3-4,6
How different God's view of civil rulers is from Machiavelli's view,
which encourages legislators and judges to be, in Ezekiel's words,
"like wolves," as they go after "dishonest gain." (Ezekiel 22.27)
Zephaniah, a contemporary of Ezekiel, 600 hundred years before the
birth of Christ, also likened the southern kingdom of Judah's civil
rulers to "ravening wolves" because they were not conforming their
governance to biblical principles.
"Her princes in her midst are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves that leave not a bone till morning. Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people; her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law." Zephaniah 3.3-4
Instead of continuing to "change our politicians like diapers," we
need to elect Christian statesmen who have been Potty trained!
(Romans 9.21)
Excerpted from "The Christian Prince: Hoe to put 'civil" back into
civil government." Buddy Hanson