A Degree of Distrust

by Susan Snelling

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree. Those words were spoken by James Madison in a speech at the Constitutional Convention on July 11, 1787. During the Convention, the Framers were concerned about power in the hands of those who would be elected or appointed to office. Certainly, knowledge of human nature as the Founding Fathers seemed to have a good grasp of made them take into account the temptations inherent in political power. There is no choice in a representative republic but to give power to a few. It is power from the many, meaning the American people, who are the “fount of power,” given to the few through the election process. John Adams wrote in 1776 in “Thoughts on Government,” As good government is an empire of laws, how shall your laws be made? In a large society, inhabiting an extensive country, it is impossible that the whole should assemble to make laws. The first necessary step, then, is to depute power from the many to a few of the most wise and good.

Notice that John Adams and the other Founders expected that the American people would elect “the most wise and good.” Even though all of those in elected office are predisposed to vice given their position in power, the wise and good are not as apt to fall prey to this inherent pitfall. Yet, they too should not be completely trusted. Good men can turn bad and the wise become fools given human nature and the tendency toward vice that powerful positions present with. Bad people are not going to become good once they are in office. The unwise will not suddenly become wise once elected. There are too many temptations at their disposal. James Madison is reported by his colleagues to have said, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

One of the concerns of the Founding Fathers was a usurpation of freedom of the American people through those in power who quietly and often behind the scenes gradually take away their God-given rights and power. The Constitution spells out that the power comes from the people through their elected officials. What may seem like a tolerable or minimally restrictive law from the legislative branch or decision or opinion from the judicial branch or from unconstitutional bureaucratic regulations, will over time result in the wholesale abridgment of freedom to the point where America is no longer recognizable as the home of the brave and the land of the free. The once-grand experiment of nations on the earth that has been respected and lauded for their generosity, freedom, and equal rights will look no different than any soft dictatorship or despotic nation. The country that the people of the earth looked to for leadership will fail them at every turn and its own inhabitants will be seen as downcast, downtrodden creatures imprisoned by the very officials they trusted to keep the representative republic doing what the Founders intended.

There must be a natural cynicism with any elected official. All officeholders must be kept an eye on, reigned in, and replaced as soon as possible. They must be held accountable by all legal means, if still available, and through the electoral process. Only people who recognize they are the source of power and have the high standards of virtue and knowledge applicable to liberty that this type of government requires are able to maintain freedom. Certainly, Congress and the President should be held accountable for allowing bureaucrats to rule the American people for they have relinquished their responsibilities to unelected officials. Anyone who aspires and allows for themselves to be elevated in such a manner is against the Constitution, the people, and should not be trusted at all.

Consider the medical tyranny, shutting down churches and businesses, lockdowns, restrictions, censorship, and divisive edicts foisted on the American people by elected officials and bureaucrats who allowed their inner tyrant to become full-blown for all to see. They should never be trusted again. This takes a virtuous and wise electorate to vote them out of office, push for their impeachment, and/or to hold them legally accountable as far as it is possible. It’s up to We the People to resist tyranny in all its forms. Remember, “Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God” (Benjamin Franklin). So let us all have a degree of distrust in our elected leaders and in those who rise up in the ranks or ascend by official appointment. “All men having power…”

Are You On AutoPilot?

by Rich Farm

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live. ~ Dt 30:19

If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve… but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. ~ Joshua 24:15

Every choice you make, has an end result.  ~  Zig Zigler

Last month I talked about how there is no neutral ground in the battle of ideas.  Someone always will have to make a compromise.  In our own personal lives and internal makeup, it is no different.  Our ability to make choices will have consequences in which direction our path in life takes.  I would go as far as to say that our inability to not make deliberate choices also has consequences.  Our Creator made us and set us apart from all of creation to be able to do this.  He gave us the ability to take in information and assess it.  With that processed information we then choose how we want to respond to it.  We do this every day in life and sometimes it’s just second nature, but sometimes we need to push pause and really digest things.

I would argue that many of us don’t truly recognize the power we have in this ability.  Many of us—present company included—will get stuck on auto-pilot in life.  Why?  Because it is just easier.  We like routine, we don’t like things that take us out of our comfort zone.  The problem with this is we get lost in that routine.  We get up, go to work, come home, go to bed, and repeat.  If we have to push pause, we will then have to be introspective and we might not like what we see.  We might actually have to take out some garbage and clean house a little bit, or a lot.  It’s always easier to sweep it under the rug, Imagine if we did that in our actual physical home.  We just swept the junk that fell on the floor to the side every time instead of cleaning it up and disinfecting from time to time.  Eventually, it would just rot and potentially make us sicker.

The same is true in our internal lives.  If we don’t push pause and reflect on choices we make or do not make, and we just continue to be stuck on autopilot we are not doing ourselves any favors.  Eventually, the rotten decay will spill out in other areas of our lives.  I know because I’ve been there.  We need to allow ourselves the ability and time to reflect and calculate the potential consequences if we continue in the same pattern of life.  Sometimes however we may be so far gone that it will take some divine intervention.  God steps in and says, “since you won’t push pause, I’m going to do it for you.”  This is His grace, and if it wasn’t for that we’d probably end up destroying ourselves.  We can sometimes be so far gone and deceived ourselves to think everything is ok, that without this intervention we will never come out of it.

Now, look at this same scenario on a national level.  For too long we have made excuses for corruption and sin, and have been on a downward spiral of immorality and evil and it has progressively gotten faster.  The ones who should have been pushing pause on this descent and causing self-reflection have been deceived into being silent.  In a culture of tolerance and “love” the church didn’t want to be the bad guy and didn’t want to offend anyone.  This attitude has not only been detrimental to the nation, but also to the church.  Instead of standing apart and separating, the majority has been assimilated into the culture.  We have gone so far that we need that divine pause.  We need to be knocked off our horse.  I feel that is what this season has brought to us.  We are in a season of exposure.  We are being laid bare, and we are being given a choice.  Are we going to continue to just push it to the side and not deal with the things we need to deal with and risk rotting away?  Or are we going to confront our issues head-on and deal with them, no matter how hard or painful it may be?

Just like in my intervention I was confronted with my sin, and exposed.  In that moment I had a choice to make, did I want to deal with it to be set free, or did I want to run away because that would just be easier in the moment?  The easy route as many of us know is not the best route.  We can’t always see the end of the road because life has many twists and turns.  But what if every person individually purposed to face those individual issues as well as national ones, where could we be as a nation?  We are in a season of exposure, God laying bare some things.  How we respond to them is going to be crucial to the direction we as individuals and as a nation take.  Some of those choices could have dire consequences.  So, are we willing to leave that to chance by being stuck on autopilot or are we going to be purposeful to live and do what is right and good?