On a recent radio talk show, a republican bigwig was lamenting the growing influence of “the Christian right” at the party confabs in his State. For this man, political pragmatism is the order of the day. Whatever gets republicans elected is good and whatever hurts that effort is bad. And since he believes that moral talk would drive voters away, he considers this development bad news for the party. Sadly, he may be right, but for none of the reasons he supposes.
What is now clear is that modern society adores government and worships power. This is so, notwithstanding the fact that the great mass of people are taxed beyond reason and overburdened with laws and regulations. Beastly as this state of affairs is, it continues to grow because this leviathan recognizes no limits to its power and looks as though it will dominate every single institution and individual. The public response is as predictable as it is historically demonstrable: They will separate into three broad categories.
The first group, a small one, withdraws from society and awaits a savior. They typically desire someone who will restore the health of the body politic only, but occasionally will be led to a true reformation of society.
A second group seeks to wrest the levers of power from their debauched “leaders” and presumably restore a healthy order. Typically, however, this group is so infected with the prevailing religion, the worship of power, that on those rare occasions where they do seize governmental control, the outcome is as bleak as the previous set of circumstances.
Finally, the great mass of people fall into the third category, the “go-along-to-get-along” crowd. Some go along hoping to be left alone. They seem to say, “If I can get through my day (and my life) without too much trouble then that will satisfy me.” Others become political apparatchiks, much like the republican bigwig, who will do anything necessary to stay in the good graces (and appointed positions) of their false god, government. Perhaps they recognize the evil around them, perhaps not. But in both cases, their fault lies in abandoning their principles and their fellow man for expediency’s sake.
As stated earlier, this situation has played out many times, but probably with no finer example than that from salvation history itself. The year is around 30 A.D. The absolute ruler, who has been taking homage due only to God, is Caesar. The empire is vast and has overrun a small backwater called Judea. These people, the Jews, are actually awaiting a messiah and should presumably fall into the first category mentioned above. But as it turns out, the longer that political power corrupts, the more people come under its sway. By the time the savior does arrive, the three groups are clearly defined.
Those awaiting a savior from the evil power are simple or sophisticated folk, fisherman and tax collectors amongst others. The uniting characteristics seem to be love of God, a prayer life, the belief in the need for repentance and sacrifice in the service of others. Epitomized by the Apostles, there were many more, as many as went out to the desert to be baptized by John.
The exemplar of the second group is Barabbas. He is now known to us simply as a murderer whose life was preferred to that of Christ’s, but he was a zealous patriot in his day. In his eagerness and earnestness to rid his society of the false idol of government, he thought himself justified in killing a man. Such is as it is when the polluting lust for power goes unchecked.
And then there were the republicans and democrats of yesteryear as represented by the Pharisees and Sadducees. Holding onto political power by the indulgence of the Roman authority, these selfish pragmatists lorded over the common folk, tolerated abusive taxation, and burdened everyone with their laws and dry customs. Worse still, they were influential enough to incite the rest of the “go-along-to-get-along” crowd to demand the crucifixion of an innocent man. “We have no King but Caesar,” they said. Truer words have never been spoken.
Not much has changed in 2000 years. If tomorrow a statesman arose who advocated the re-establishment of the family as the building block of society, who insisted upon individual freedom AND responsibility, who demanded the reduction of the size and scope of government, while resurrecting the local authorities’ duties and jurisdictions, who recommended the injection of morality and the natural law into our governing institutions, that man would be tried and convicted of treason or sedition (at least in the court of public opinion, but perhaps in the near future in a court of “law”).
We have no King but Washington.
We have no King but power.
We have no King but money.
This will eventually degrade to:
We will have NO King.
What the republican mouthpiece should fear, rather than “moralists” scaring away voters from his party, is the voters discarding republican “leadership” in much the same fashion they jettisoned Christianity. When that happens, those living will indeed be waiting for, begging for, a Savior from the mobs that lop off the heads of dissenting voices.