It's Not The Government, Stupid!

Date: September 20, 2008

It’s Not The Government...!

The role of Government - pocketbook issues, public service and bailouts.


In this the third and final (maybe) installment of my “stupid” series of rants, we tie the previous two topics together with one over-riding principle. That principle being that Government has a fairly narrow and very specific God-ordained purpose. With those two topics we’ll also throw in this week’s big news, the Federal bail-out of Wall Street. But first, it is imperative to consider a little-studied and little-understood Biblical/Theological subject. That subject is Biblical Anthropology.

Biblical Anthropology is important to properly understand the nature of man as created in the image of God and to understand the institutions created and ordained by God, for mankind. It is well beyond the scope of this article to go deeply into the subject, chapter and verse. As with all doctrine, it is a synthesis – a systematic theology – from the entire Scripture. If you want more study as it relates to today’s topic of the role of Government, you might start with Francis Schaeffer’s “A Christian Manifesto” and then wade into deeper water with his, “How Shall We Then Live?” For starters. So, here goes with a quick overview of the role of the three God-ordained institutions. Hang on and hang in there.

God’s institutions are the family, the church and the government (state). Family. Church. State.

The Family – starting with one man and one woman – is the foundational building block for society.

It is where culture, values, faith, habits, discipline, ethic, world view, interests, talents, self-esteem, sense of identity, sense of security – and on it goes – is formed in children and transferred to another generation. It is the family that works, lives, worships, prospers – that survives - together. It doesn’t take a village. It takes a family. More specifically, it takes a loving, nurturing Mother and Father. You have a break-down in this foundational social structure and it won’t matter how much money you throw at education, at crime, at poverty, at free lunches, at sex education, at whatever…you will still get the same dismal results and an unraveling culture. Yea, kind of like ours!

Single motherhood(1) and absence of “baby’s daddy” in the home is a major cause of poverty in America. No amount of Government money or number of Federal programs will reverse that reality – in fact they only exacerbate the problem. Ask my wife who taught public school for twenty-two years. She’s the first to tell you that lack of money is not the problem with America’s education system. Why do we turn fourth graders near the top globally into high school graduates near the bottom globally? Well there’s a lot wrong in the schools, for sure, but so much more of the problem is in the homes – in the broken homes – of America’s children. Oh, how many kids she dealt with in Special Ed. with problems stemming from no father or no parental guidance in the home. No discipline, no respect, no learning. Oh, how many kids she dealt with who had drug problems, because they were the product of over-grown hippies who never grew up and never kicked the marijuana habit themselves. Fruit never falls far from the tree. The tree for culture and society is The Family. Bad family, bad social fruit. Good family, good social fruit.

The Church – The community of faith, those people of God, in the Judeo-Christian tradition particularly - cares for the widow, orphan and alien.

It is the Church that builds up the faith instilled in the home. It is the church that provides the corporate worship and instruction in the things of God. It is the community of believers who share a common faith and world view who are called to love and care for one another in this “household of faith”. Beyond the spiritual-religious instruction and fellowship, and outreach to those not yet in that household, the people of God have other important responsibilities.

Throughout Scripture – Old and New Testaments - there are commands to and demands upon the people of God. Some of God’s demands on us are:

1. Husbands and wives love and honor one another; God hates divorce because of its destructions.

2. Children honor their parents; meanwhile parents neither spoil, nor abuse their children.

3. Believers love and care for one another – see the dozens of “one another passages”

4. Provide for those who can’t provide for themselves – starting with, but not limited to believers

5. Provide especially for the widow, the orphan, the alien among you – the innocent and helpless.

In short, the family should be able to provide for themselves in most normal situations if they live according to God’s principles of fidelity, unity, honor, hard work, diligence, thrift, saving and tithing. But, it is a broken world due to sin and sometimes – often times – God’s design is marred, even fractured. That is when the people of God – the Church in our age – are to step up and provide for those who can’t provide for themselves. Jesus’ earthly ministry of helping the poor and feeding the orphan is now the job of the Church, not the State. (I will have to wait to explore the breathtaking failure of today’s Church to live up to this role and the resulting disaster from its acquiescence to The State.) The Church supremely is God’s tool to declare His plan of salvation from sin. An agent of His saving grace. In word and deed.

The State. Government has one central function. “Wield The Sword”.

Among the few legitimate roles of The State is to wield the sword for three purposes:

1. Keep The Peace

2. Administer Justice

3. Provide National Security

The State is God’s tool to suppress the sinful tendencies of people and encourage adherence to His moral standards in a fallen, unredeemed world. An agent of God’s common grace. The State legislates and polices the public arena such that our bent to take unfair advantage of others, to crime, even to anarchy is suppressed. When we violate the cultural limits and socially-agreed laws, then The State administers justice. This can range from a notice, to a ticket, to incarceration, all the way to capital punishment.


God wants us to live tranquil, safe, peaceable lives. The State keeps His peace. God is justice, a Person of justice. He demands justice. The State is a manifestation of His character, an executor of His justice in this world. For instance, taking an extreme and controversial example, capital punishment is not at all about revenge, not even about deterrence, though it may provide a measure of both for some individuals. The main point of State-executed capital punishment is its demonstration of God’s high value of innocent human life and His high view and absolute demand for justice. Indeed, not holding man fully accountable for murder is to declare him less than human, thus denigrating God’s creation of man as the apex of His creative expression. All the way around it is a matter of justice, God’s justice. His declaration of His character and His values.

Finally, and most dramatically, it is The State that protects national borders and secures national sovereignty. Government most fundamentally is to protect the borders and guarantee the opportunity to move and work freely, unthreatened by enemies from without. All else that government does begins here and cascades down from that super responsibility. Thus, war can be just and Christian individuals can march at the command of the State recognizing that they are serving God’s institution in this cause.

It is not The State’s role to feed and clothe your child, even if you do elect to outsource their education to government. It isn’t The State’s job to proscribe your religion, nor is to interfere with your exercise of it any private or public arena. It isn’t the government’s job to care for you from cradle to grave. The only security that government is to provide is civic order and national security – keeping the peace, punishing the social-contract-breakers, and providing protection from enemies so you can go about your own business and life, and faith.

Of course, there are ample Biblical examples of major projects that The State can undertake to accomplish these goals. And other public projects or infrastructures of a scope suited to Government. The State can provide the general environment and facilitate in various ways the legitimate activities of individuals, families and an infinite variety of human associations. Jesus didn’t even challenge the State’s authority to take its share of coins for these services. But, these vagaries must be watched closely.

No statement by man better articulates what has taken me three pages to say, than does the Preamble to our own Constitution. This Preamble clearly lays out the purpose of the Constitution, the principles upon which it is based and the world-view underlying our Founders’ thoughts. It reads,

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Citizens under this Constitution have a straightforward job on election days. Select leaders most apt to:
a. Provide that local peace and national security needed for individual, family and community existence.
b. Legislate and appoint judges such that righteous justice is meted out according to the Constitution.
c. Limit the inherent tendency of Government to encroach in affairs outside its legitimate realm.

If our citizens studied their Constitution a bit more. If our Christians studied Biblical Anthropology a bit more. If we hadn’t strayed from our forefathers’ faith, world view and clear intent of their words…

If,if, if…we wouldn’t have polls in a time of war revealing that most Americans care more what their country can do for them, than what they can do for their country. Or simply do for themselves. That they are more concerned with their personal comforts and affluence than defeating a very clear and present danger in the terrorists committed to annihilating our nation and ending western civilization. We wouldn’t be spending valuable time and money inventing new, dubious ways for people to “serve the State” beyond those inherently available in the Biblical and Constitutional context.

If, if, if…we wouldn’t be in today’s mess.We aren’t stupid. But we are ignorant of these truths. Our ignorance and self-centeredness , or pure idealism, make us think and behave stupidly. So, I say respectfully, “It is NOT the government, stupid!”(2)

Curtis Hail

PS – So what about the government bail-outs this week? Tough call. Government helped get us in this mess. Instead of being vigilant to our bent toward greed, the cozy relationship between Congress, regulators and the key financial institutions actually encouraged and fueled stupid behavior. Laws and policies from the 90’s intent on guaranteeing every American a home beyond their means converged with cheap money needed in the 00’s to help keep the economy moving after 9/11. A perfect storm, indeed. I’m no financial genius, but even I know that if you make enough bad loans to people who can’t possibly pay them back, you are going to rue the day. So, how do we get out of it now? Either way, the US citizenry and taxpayer is going to pay the bill. We’ll pay either through taxes to pay off the bailouts or pay through the financial disaster if the financial infrastructure unravels. So you take your pick and decide which route is the least hurtful to the citizenry/taxpayers. Let’s pray the bail-out option is the better route out of this mess and that the inevitable “unintended consequences” of any major action won’t be worse than the cure! Of course, it has to get past petty partisan political roadblocks to even have a chance. We’ll see.


In short, a lot of this goes back to Government messing in areas it really shouldn’t have been in the first place, and not doing its legitimate watch-dog job. Oh, and all those greedy guys who never had the benefit of reading the Ten Commandments on their public school bulletin board or didn’t start their school day with a quiet “moment of reflection” reminding them that there might be a Higher Authority watching their every devious deed – yea, they had a lot to do with this mess as well.

(1) Not an indictment of single mothers, many of whom do a heroic job of raising kids. It is a nod to the fact that many, many single mothers and their families unnecessarily live at or below poverty levels because the fathers of their children have abandoned them and do not provide for these families as God intended.

(2) Borrowing from the 1992 Clinton campaign ploy to focus on a key, overriding issue, “Its’ the economy, stupid!” No offense intended. This article is best understood in the context of my two preceding “Stupid” articles, “It’s the Terrorists, Stupid!” and “It’s the Military, stupid!” - CVH

©2008