Welcome to Freedomthirst.com

From The Patriot Post:

“If duties are too high, they lessen the consumption; the collection is eluded; and the product to the treasury is not so great as when they are confined within proper and moderate bounds. This forms a complete barrier against any material oppression of the citizens by taxes of this class, and is itself a natural limitation of the power of imposing them.”

– Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 21, 1787)

I find that people are afraid of the concept of getting our ideas from God’s Law in the Bible for use in our own Civil Government. Of course, the very same Biblical Law is one of the foundations of law in Western Civilization! In other words, we already did this as a society over hundreds of years.

I think the image of Puritans and the Salem Witch Trials come to mind when people hear Christians say “let’s base our laws on the Bible.”

So how are we as Christians going to present something different to the world? To be fair, people calling themselves “Christians” have done bizarre things throughout history in the name of Enforcing God.

God doesn’t need to be enforced, He can enforce Himself just fine!

We won’t succeed in implementing God’s ways unless there is a significant moral consensus. We will never be able to “implement” faith. We can “implement”, by free will choice, in agreement with the rest of society, the ways of God in civil government. Until their is a moral consensus, however, we have to present the ideas in the language of this world. We can’t try and force this thing! It will not work that way.

Amongst Christians who are convinced that God’s ways are the best ways we can talk about getting our laws from the Bible. Amongst the world we need to somehow come up with Reason that will appeal to the Law of God that is written on the hearts of all men! And I suppose, in some circumstances, it is ok for us to try and explain and clarify what we mean by “base our laws on Christianity.” I don’t think everyone knows what we mean. The scary thing is, I don’t think all Christians know what we mean. Perhaps the world is right to be afraid.

(Article Continues Below)

Here is a comment I made on Digg.com in response to “Ramble” who was displaying the very fears and concerns I am talking about:

Hello Ramble. I don’t think you understand the idea. I am not saying that we make the Bible the Civil Law. I am saying that we would be unwise to disregard the only time in History we have Authoritative Written Record of God creating a Civil Government. I am convinced that we are not “under the law” (New Testament Christianity), but the law is wisdom from God. We can study His Law, discern His Heart and Wisdom, and be inspired in our own Civil Lawmaking by the wisdom and ideas behind God’s Civil Laws for Israel. I have no problem with sorting out “religious” laws from “civil” laws because we are NOT ancient Israel. We are America (or wherever you are from).

So we don’t need to ban cutting the hair on the side of your head. But we can search for info on how God sorted out disputes, enforced Civil Peace, and provided a Healthy Society.

I want to know His thoughts on the matter and then humbly (I hope) present those thoughts to the world. The Bible talks about God’s laws being written on the hearts of the “gentiles.” People know God’s laws. They are “common sense” (although not so “common”). God reveled His Wisdom for us to discover and understand, just like we discover and understand the Created Natural Universe.

ThirstyJon

I read an article today arguing that the Bible should not be used in defense of public policy views. The author makes some good points.

I am also in the midst of a discussion on this very blog. One commenter suggested that we be very careful about wanting to make our laws based on the Bible.

Here is my response as I posted it there:

God Himself led a people out of slavery and formed a nation in ancient Israel. We have no other case in history where he has done this in such an authoritative manner. We would not be wise to discount the reasonings of the only civil government ever founded directly by Supernatural Intervention from God Himself.

I do not propose such a shallow reading of the scriptures that would result in outlawing clothing made of multiple materials. However, we as humans are free to each read the Bible for ourselves and then come together to form our forms of Civil Government. Including the revolutionary Freedom Ideas from God Himself in His Law would be a good idea.

(Article Continues Below)

Unfortunately, not everyone accepts the Story of History as told by God in the Holy Scriptures. It would be best for those of us who do accept them to seek understanding of the reasonings behind God’s Laws, then apply those reasonings to our quest to form good law, and then present them to the world.

We can also work to persuade the world of the benefits that have resulted from Christian Civilization.

Most importantly of all we can work to invite and persuade the world to embrace Jesus and be filled with the Holy Spirit. A bunch of people filled with God can still disagree, but at least we would be pursuing the same goal - the Character of the Kingdom of God manifest right here on earth while we await Jesus’ imminent return.

Citizenlink.org posted a story about President Bush defending free speech rights by opposing the “Fairness Doctrine.” I found the article interesting for two reasons.

First, so many have tried to paint President Bush as “anti civil liberties.” Here is a great example of him defending a very important one.

Second, I am so glad Al Gore or John Kerry are not our president right now! Would you believe that some people actually think that having the government regulate who says what when via a “fairness” doctrine would be a good idea? I think it is crazy that anyone would even propose such a thing.

What will it take to see that the government, especially the federal government should be influenced and guided by the people and not the other way around?

Here is a quote from the article:

Congressional Democrats have threatened to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, which was put in place by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1949 and later repealed. It required the nation’s TV and radio broadcasters to make time for voices on both sides of controversial issues. For example, pro-life stories would need to include comments from Planned Parenthood or another pro-abortion group, if the Fairness Doctrine is reinstated.

Bush told the NRB conference it won’t happen on his watch.

“The very First Amendment to our Constitution includes the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion,” he said. “The Founders believed these inalienable rights were endowed to us by our Creator. They are vital to a healthy democracy, and we must never let anyone take those freedoms away.

[Read More]