Don’t Tread on Me or Don’t Count on
Me
Recently I was
talking to a young lady in her early 20’s about Elon Musk’s tussle with Alameda
county in CA over opening Tesla in spite of the corona virus shutdown. I asked
her opinion and while not knowing who Musk is she said, “People are crazy”, to
which I responded, ”Do you mean the citizens or the government?” She then aimlessly
meandered into the position that people should obey government somewhat
blindly. I tried to get her to commiserate with a business owner being told
basically you can’t make money and you can’t work so basically you must go out
of business. ‘But don’t worry, we the wise and magnanimous overlords are here
for you to hand you a check from newly created money which will devalue the
currency, creating inflation’. She seemed somewhat sympathetic to their plight
but when I asked her if she was a ‘give me liberty or give me death’ person or
a ‘give me security and what liberties’ sort of person, she responded with a
‘give me food and I’m good’ motto. She then revealed that she wasn’t sure what
the bill of rights exactly were, she had not heard of the ‘live free of die’,
‘don’t tread on me’ mottos or Patrick Henry’s famous quote ‘Give me liberty or
give me death!’. I jokingly told her that I would design a flag for her that
says ‘Don’t Count on Me’ and maybe have an earthworm on it or perhaps a leach
would be more appropriate. I don’t know if she was shamed enough into educating
herself but she did say she votes (criminal negligence?).
I have to be sympathetic to her since I was
also a victim of the public education system. But this brings up an interesting
concept, that is, what responsibility does one have as a citizen? Not as a
Christian per se, but as a citizen. We know from a biblical perspective the
work of the law is in the conscience of all men and woman by God, to the extent
that they become a law unto themselves accusing and excusing one another. (Rom.2:13-16)
This is the basis of government. Of course people also have sin and lusts and
pride operating in their flesh and minds and this can skew government to become
destructive to life liberty and property, the very things it is designed to
protect. And with this Christian perspective on human nature our founding
fathers created a dynamic government incorporating a certain degree of
democracy with the restraints of a constitution, that is, a republic.
In a previous blog I mentioned the motivation by
people who are ignorant of sin and human nature and or foolish, who want a
stronger centralized government to ‘parent’ us. That they are like Israel of
old demanding a king like the nations around them. We are demanding socialism
like the nations around us. However when they were brought into the promised
land God did not set up a king for them, instead they appeared to have a form
of republic with the law given to Moses as the constitution and officials
appointed by the tribes to govern them (Dt.1:12-18). The tribes more tightly
governed themselves city to city, but the loose confederation of tribes would
come together to defend one another and protect one another’s lives and
property. When they were entering the land to receive their inheritance and
driving out the sexually perverted, devil worshipping, child sacrificing
nations (yes, they were- see Lev.18 and 20), Moses admonished the
tribes of Gad and Reuben (Num.32) that they better not take their inheritance
and then forget their brethren fighting for theirs and fail to assist them.
Moses instructed them that they were to go armed to assist their brethren and
then spoke these famous words “ But
if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure
your sin will find you out.” (v32) Therefore to him that knoweth to do
good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. (Jam.4:15) In Judges 20 we
observe the record of how punishment was executed upon a tribe harboring
wickedness. The tribes of Israel gathered against the tribe of Benjamin to
punish men for sexual perversion and murder. The men of Israel felt the
personal weight of obligation to remove this evil from among themselves even at
the point of losing their lives enforcing it. We seem to have lost this sense
of responsibility through prosperity. We enjoy the pleasures of this life to
the sacrificing of our responsibility to our gallant ancestors and our innocent
posterity to preserve freedom. ‘Let someone else do that, but don’t count on
me.’ No longer is it 'give me liberty or death' the new motto is, 'give me security
or slavery'. “Is life so dear, or
peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?”
Maybe so in this generation and in these days while we live for the present
gratification of the flesh and do not believe in the world to come. Death is to
be feared above all else. (Acts 20:24)
But our founders did say it was our responsibility- which
is to bind our conscience to the obligation to preserve liberty. It is up to
you personally to be your brother’s keeper. The Declaration of Independence
states regarding our God given unalienable Rights “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”,
that “whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to
alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation
on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” “…it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new
Guards for their future security”.
Our founders said again: “We have counted the cost of
this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. -- Honour,
justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we
received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a
right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning
succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we
basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.”
This shame and infamy is resigned to Nazi Germany and
the Soviet union for example. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn recounts his arrest along
with millions of other citizens under the Stalin regime recalling “You aren’t
gagged. You really can and really ought to cry out- to cry out
that you are being arrested!...That arrests are being made on the strength of
false denunciations! That millions are being subjected to silent reprisals!”
And yet hardly anyone made a peep or mutter. No public stir or “bristle” to
make the arrests more difficult. He mentions once when a woman screamed holding
onto a street lamp and drew a crowd which flustered the young men attempting
the arrest who quickly fled. (The Gulag Archipelago- the Vintage abridgment pg
11-12) For decades it continued Solzhenitsyn states, “How long all that dragged
on! And how many millions there were! But the future call-up of 1937 didn’t bat
an eyelid and found it all normal. They remained calm while society was
being imprisoned. Their “outrage reason boiled” when their own fellowship
began to be imprisoned.” (pg.244) Of course then it is usually too late. But a
society with no courage, no spirit, and seduced with pleasures is ripe for
enslavement. It “is natural to man to
indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful
truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts.”
Patrick Henry continued “Are fleets
and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves
so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our
love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and
subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, sir,
what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission?
Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it?” “Besides, sir, we shall not fight our
battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations;
and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.” “Our brethren are already in the field! Why
stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is
life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and
slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but
as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
We have greater
organizing power and information flow available to us than our founding
generation. We can move in unison. What will we do? What if we took this
responsibility upon ourselves personally to ensure liberty to our children?
Regardless of your mediocrity it is up to you. God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base
things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and
things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory
in his presence. 1 Cor.1:27-9 Let us operate under the Christian charge to
evangelize the lost and the American citizen obligation to preserve liberty. Our
liberties cannot be preserved by an anti-Christ generation, so we have a lot of
work to do. The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few. (Mt.9:37)
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