Reality Check 101

            The problems of poverty, crime, infanticide (abortion) and sexual immoralities (with attendant consequences) cannot be addressed, let alone solved, through government-sponsored social engineering only or religious activism alone.  The causes ofAmerica’s dysfunctions are multifaceted.  Her enclaves of suffering are not populated by people with cookie-cutter circumstances.  Each individual not only carries a history of crises and choices, but lives in a milieu of relationships and responsibilities (or lack thereof), sub-cultural expectations and biases, physical and psychological characteristics, economic realities and most importantly, a condition of soul and a position before God.

            The vision of our forefathers was for a nation guided by limited government and populated by self-responsible, individuals who respected Godly reverence, understood moral purity and exercised the kind of patriotism that was willing to sacrifice in order to confront domestic or foreign suffering and evil no matter what form they took or where they were.  They understood, apparently better than we, that the more care-giving any centralized civil authority does the more it must take, and the more it takes the more its power grows.  That power grows incrementally, one slightly more intrusive baby step at a time as the citizenries give one almost imperceptible, harmless-appearing nod of approval after another.  Inevitably, as the people increasingly cry for a more generous federal nanny, they surrender, opting for a king; enamored by mere mortals who hypocritically claim the divine power to single-handedly solve social ills and deliver the kingdom of heaven on earth.

            It is not too late to reclaim the vision, but the reclamation must be rooted in some baseline realities.  The most fundamental truth of all is that humans are spiritual beings.  Our lives are shaped by how we express our souls.  Social redemption will never happen apart from personal redemption and until men and women are free to express righteousness through every possible public and private means, including the moral leadership of a spiritually sensitive, self-limited government.  The 1892 Supreme Court said it well in the case of Church of the Holy Trinity vs. United States, “Religion, morality, and knowledge (are) necessary to good government, the preservation of liberty, and the happiness of mankind.”

            Secondly, social redemption is not the primary responsibility of government and civil justice is not the primary responsibility of the church.  Imbued with western civilization’s Judeo-Christian truths, the signers of our nation’s founding documents understood the function of government.  Listen to their wisdom:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights … life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted …” (Declaration of Independence).  “… in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty … establish this constitution …” (US Constitution).  Jesus was equally clear concerning the church’s redemptive mission:  “Go therefore and make disciples … baptizing … teaching …” (Great Commission, MT 28:19-20).  The Apostle John made application by saying, “Do not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and in truth” (I John3:18).  God’s purpose is for the institutions of church and state to carry out the responsibilities of their offices, complimenting each other’s efforts especially since government is God-ordained.

            Unconscionable hate rhetoric which casts conservative Christians as “home-grown extremists” waging “holy ware” while resembling “radical Islam” (Lozon, Sentinel) is poisonous to social redemption.  The truth is that neither those who originally fought to bequeath us our liberties nor God who blessed their efforts intended church and state to function on opposite sides of a “wall of separation,” or to exist as warring factions.  As George Washington once wrote, “while just government protects all in their religious rights, true religion affords to government its surest support.”  Sadly, our society’s ills are worsening because of the failures of both institutions.  Huge segments of Christianity have faded into the background and allowed government to commandeer social ministry even as the bureaucracies grow more waywardly powerful, promoting a culture of entitlement instead of ingenuity and big brotherism instead of big hearts.