One of the more significant political debates these days is over the size of government.
On the one side we have the traditional argument for small government, meaning that the jurisdictional power of those in command over us is limited in scope in regards to the details of life. On the other hand, we have the political philosophy of big government, meaning that we need more government, not less, and that enlarging the jurisdictional sphere of our centralized government is the only cure for what ails us.
What might the Bible say on the subject? Since God is the ultimate model for good government, what might we learn from his example?
When God made man he clearly modeled limited government. The real focus is on man’s individual freedom. “And God said, ‘You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden . . .’ (and established small government with only ONE regulatory commandment) ‘…except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.*’"
Only ONE commandment. The rest is freedom! That’s small government! Only later, when sin entered the world, did God expand his government to TEN commandments.
From this we learn:
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God’s preferred model is large individual freedom and small government.
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It is the entrance (or increase) of SIN that requires an increase of government.
The God-model of government might teach us that to enlarge government for any other reason than dealing with sin is going down the wrong path.
What do you think?
Principle Based Evaluation: Self-discipline is the foundation of all freedom and therefore any wise public policy should promote personal choices which reinforce every citizen’s internal self-government. With this in mind it is clear that restrictive government can only be justified in light of people’s failure to govern themselves. With a reintroduction of self-government, smaller civil government should be both desirable and possible.
* Genesis 2:15-17
Steve Russell
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Less is More! I agree. I just read Dennis Bakke's "Joy at Work"; a tremendous picture of bottom up leadership. Dennis's definition of joy is empowering people to make decisions and take responibility for them. He found when they took over the running of an energy plant; they typically needed half the people or less to run the place efficiently, freeing others to operate in their gifts elsewhere. I have just spent the last four years in an institution that teaches these principles, yet does not seem to operate by them in practice. When leadership of whatever sort makes decisions for others it disempowers them and in effect creates a slave class dependent on leadership instead of self discipline. When we place our faith in the legal system or government or any institution; even the church, we are giving away our place in the Spirit. This is the basic reality of spiritual warfare. This is the good news of the gospel; Jesus is lord and government and institutions aren't. |
Jeremiah Surface
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... I agree with the idea that less government is God's original purpose, but that idea of a small government must be coupled with self-government. In this day and age how do we get this nation to embrace self-government? Most people have lived there whole life to get away from responsibility, so how do we reduce government and get people to embrace the responsibility over their own lives. Currently our country is driving down the road to bigger government and less freedom, so how do we stop the car without slamming the brakes and swinging a 180 degree turn around? Today, whether it is right or not, people depend on the government for food stamps, welfare checks, and handouts to support their lives. If we pull this support out from underneath them some will learn to actually provide for themselves, while others will still struggle to make ends meet. Smaller government is where America needs to go, but how do we get there? |
Jessica Rankin
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... I completely agree with this article. God’s intention for us was a small government companied with self-government of the people. Like the article said, it is only when people lose their self-control and fall into sin that more government is needed to control the chaos that could break out. Self-government is constitutional and plays a large role in how the founding fathers set up their government. “We should respect the substance of choices of the founders because only they spoke on the basis of the ‘solemn and authoritative act’ of the people. We should respect their choices because we should take seriously the idea of constitutional deliberation and choice through democratic means, of constitutional foundings as conscious, real-time political events. We should act so as to preserve the possibility of constitutional self-governance” (Source 1). Seeing as many people believe in a small government but think it is impossible to achieve this (Source 2), my question is how can we accomplish turning our huge American government into a smaller one without completely wrecking it right away? Source 1: http://www.heritage.org/resear...hy/fp5.cfm Source 2 : http://www.centerforsmallgover...ent-small/ |
