Biblical Replies To The Top 5 'Liberal Slogans'

First an apology to my Canadian readers, who are knee-deep in an election campaign just now, and have a party-of-the-left that actually calls itself "The Liberal Party of Canada." Poetically, those Libs are running against a party called "The Conservative Party of Canada." How can you not love the clarity of our friends in the Great White North? But I digress.


This post, however, is about American politics and the buzz-phrases du jour passed off as Received Wisdom by the American left, as most prominently recited by their putative leader, the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.

5. The Rich Should Pay Their Fair Share. 

The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less... —Exodus 30:15 

5a. The Rich Will Need To Sacrifice A Little More. 

If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice' you would not have condemned the innocent. —Matthew 12:7
The only tax that is Biblically endorsed is a "poll tax", which is a pure Flat Tax. A case can be made for the tax being a percentage of annual increase, rather than a flat amount, but any kind of progressive tax is clearly disallowed. For my friends on the left unfamiliar with the concept of a flat ten percent tax: a person who made a million dollars in 2010 would pay $100,000 while a person making a hundred grand would pay $10,000. How, in anybody's political philosophy, is this not a fair share?

4. The Income Gap Is Too Wide. 

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. —1 Peter 2:1
One of my favorite quotes from Jesus is his answer to Peter, who upon receiving a hard-but-clear instruction to follow Christ, reacted by pointing to a colleague and asking the Lord: "But what about this man?" Peter illustrates a common human failure: comparing ourselves to others in hopes of avoiding hardship, or spreading our misery. But Jesus would have none of it: "If I want him to [do something else], what is that to you? You follow me." A focus on the GAP between what I make and what my neighbor makes is a craven, base, sinful act of envy and malice.

3. The Wealthy Have Benefited Most From America's Success. 

For the Scripture says, "You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain." And in another place, "Those who work deserve their pay!" —1 Timothy 5:18
Please, this is a pathetic and weasel-ish ploy to try and justify taking more than a fair share from the rich. The corollary of this silly statement is just as true (and just as irrelevant): that the poor have benefited most from the success of America's rich. In no case is it helpful to try and coerce more than a fair share from anybody.

2. We Can't Solve Our Debt Problem Without Raising Taxes. 

One tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart... — Leviticus 27:30

I like Ray Stevens line: if 10% is good enough for Jesus, it oughta be good enough for Uncle Sam. No, slogan #2 is just another childish plea to view all current government expenditures as sacred. I don't use the word "sacred" thoughtlessly, because to the Left, government literally replaces God as Provider, Healer, Protector, Redeemer and all other deeds associated with the Holy One. It is obvious that governments in America spend waaay too much...and when they raise tax rates, they spend even more!

1. Government Must Do What We Can't Do For Ourselves.
The authorities are God’s servants, sent... for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong. So...pay your taxes [not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience]. — Romans 13:4-6
It is idolatry to look to the state to care for our family members, or to teach our children, or to heal our diseases, or to perform our charitable duty. Civil governments are instituted by God to punish wrongdoers. Period. Before the government usurped all these social roles, it was churches and individuals who built hospitals, libraries, universities and rescue missions. Heck, the money used by governments comes from us in the first place, so it isn't like we-the-people couldn't afford to do these things individually and thru voluntary associations.

If common-sense, God-fearing Americans don't restrain this government at their earliest opportunity, the decline of a once-great nation—founded on Biblical principles and explicitly dependent on God for her prosperity—may well become an irreversible slide.

Obama's Bismarck?

Bismarck is burning. Not like the 1991 documentary film about debauchery in NYC, and certainly not the way fires of revolution have engulfed the Muslim Middle East. 

I toyed with entitling this post "Sink The Bismarck (Again)", but the famous German WWII battleship's fate carries less resonance in our culture with every passing year. 

Or how about "A Tale of 3 Bismarcks", given that the city and the ship were both named after the famous non-Socialist who invented the modern welfare state?

Today Bismarck—and all of North Dakota—truly is on fire. In a Chamber of Commerce kind of way. With Otto von Bismarck's cradle-to-grave Statism finally dying all over the world (see Greece, Ireland and Spain), and with the warship still mired on the bottom of the Atlantic, the town on the banks of the Missouri River is the only one of the three Bismarcks still kickin'. And how.

What was the unemployment rate in your state last month? Probably not 3.7% like North Dakota's. Taxes there are moderate, and it's a right-to-work state, attractive to new employers. The state's median household income has increased 17% in the last decade, triple the rate of Massachussetts and more than 10 times California's. Oh, and North Dakota has the lowest percentage of non-religious people of any state, and the most churches per capita. Coincidence?

In his Washington DC palace today, Otto von Obama sits grinding his teeth that he cannot exert his will in North Dakota as he can in Alaska, Utah, Wyoming and off the coasts of Louisiana, California and other states. But why can't the King of America issue edicts to stop the production of shale oil up by the 49th Parallel? Because the land up there isn't owned by The Crown. 

With so much of their land in private hands, North Dakotans are free to develop it for their good and ours. Their lignite coal provides 90% of the state's electricity, and the oil-fields up there are helping fill our gas tanks, while bringing wealth to the free people in and around Bismarck. 

I hope in the next election we'll chart a course for our ship of state more along the lines of our friends up yonder, and reject the path of the the man who brought the world National Health Insurance.