Your First Responsibility as a Citizen
January 23, 2009
“When government accepts responsibility for people,
then people no longer take responsibility for themselves.”
~George Pataki
Now to discuss our responsibility in the civil realm, meaning Government.
Some people think Christians should not be involved in politics, I have to wonder if that is why we are in the mess we are in.
We all have a responsibility to be involved in one way or another at the VERY LEAST we need to be informed. We need to know our history, which many of us (ME) are learning as adults. Knowing our history will help us understand the present. Knowing our history is more than reading the typical Government issued textbook (think about who wrote those?) Spend time reading journals, documents and autobiographies. In these lie the facts.
We NEED to know our Constitution. One thing we are doing this year is copying the Constitution as copywork, we will do this over and over until spring. Olivia is taking the Constitutional Law class through Patrick Henry. Government is her passion, she shares with us constantly!
We NEED to know the current events in light of other sources besides the liberal media. Don’t get your news from sources that are not moral. This is one of the biggest downfalls of our current society. We simply sit down and absorb everything the 6:00 news tells us. Oprah and Dr. Whoever are the experts and we blindly follow them. Few people question what they say in the light of God’s word. In fact, if you question what they say, you’ll realize the tube must be turned off.
Journalism no longer reports ‘just the facts’. Mainstream media has a serious money making, God hating agenda, so how can they be objective?
Praise God for the internet! There are plenty of bloggers and news websites that can help balance the liberal garbage.
So, when you look at the current events, see how new decisions line up with what God’s Word says. Then see how it lines up with the Constitution. Teach your kids never to quietly accept what is told to them. They must learn discernment. This means they have to spend time reading and knowing their history!
This is our NUMBER 1 responsibility in the civil realm. If the majority of citizens would have been examining the laws in light of the Bible and the Constitution; then if they would have demanded compliance by the lawmakers, I dare to say we would not have laws on the books that have killed millions of babies. Nor would we have 40% of our income taken in taxes!!!
So you may not be called to hold a government position, but we are all called to be educated and active, if nothing else having our voice be heard and our VOTE counted.
“Nothing strengthens the judgment
and quickens the conscience
like individual responsibility.”
~Shanton
Topics: Responsibility | 5 Comments »
Comments (5)
I love the idea of using the Constitution for copywork. I may need to implement that idea this year.
You are exactly right. I cannot believe the number of Christians I know who are apathetic about the government and what is going on in our society. So many just blindly accept what is happening as inevitable.
Did you hear that Obama is reversing using tax dollars for abortions? He didn’t waste any time, did he?
Prayerfully,
Dana
It is time for Christians to stand up and take charge. And lead the way once more.
I love the Constitution as copywork…very good idea. We may be doing that.
I do want to offer a caution though about “being involved” or “doing something’ for the sake not wanting to appear apathetic. I believe we need to be informed, that we need to vote with discernment, and as “we the people” we need to communicate with our elected officials.
Maybe I have a different perspective because of the background I had before I got saved, but I feel strongly that we need to be careful to clearly communicate what the gospel is and isn’t as we involve ourselves in the civic realm…before I got saved, I mistakenly thought that Christianity as all about infringing on rights and against anything that sounded too fun, all because during the 80s there was a lot of activism “against this and against that”. I honestly was so confused when I heard the gospel for the first time because prior to that all I ever heard from Christians were their political views and what offended them, not the Good News that could change my life and transform me by the fruit of the Spirit. I no longer needed a “right to abortion” or a right to listen to foul music once the Holy Spirit came in! I went from Pro Choice to Pro life, not because of a change in law or losing a debate, but because of the transforming power of God in the gospel. And, that same transforming power is the ONLY thing that can really change our world for Christ.
God has been bringing me back to this point this year, that if Christians spent as much time telling others about the good news of Christ, if they spent as much time reading the Bible as they do reading World Net Daily (and no slam against them…I read it too…but it sometimes skews our perspective of reality and makes us think everyone is out to get us and the sky is falling in…but the Bible edifies), if we spent as much time praying for our leaders as we do criticizing them, we could turn our world upside down just as the Apostles did in the first century.
I think it is good to be informed, I think it is good to communicate to our elected officials, and I absolutely believe in voting, however, we have to remember that our hope is in Christ, not in the Republican party, or the Supreme Court, or in laws, or whatever. If the Apostles could turn the world upside down with the gospel during the reign of Nero, we can do it in this age, and Christ’s reign in a man’s heart doesn’t have term limits!
(getting off my soapbox now)