My wife once had a temporary job working for a large Catholic diocese. They were in the midst of a building project and had brought in a company whose task was to notify every member of the diocese of what their expected donation to the building project was. It was an interesting approach to those of us with Protestant mindsets because it was not so much a request as it was a bill. People were expected to pay their share. If you are part of the diocese, you pay. Kind of simple, actually. The purpose of this article is not to evaluate this method of funding. It is presented for comparison.
In northern California where I live there is an old abandoned railroad track. I used to have to cross it twice daily on my way to and from the bus stop when I was a kid. We had to watch for the trains. But with the demise of logging further north the trains stopped running and the weeds have grown.
Last fall the voters voted! We are going to spend millions of dollars to refurbish the old tracks and start a commuter train running the few miles into San Francisco. Now let me remind you, California is near bankruptcy, billions of dollars in debt, but we voted to spend millions on a set of old railroad tracks.
The thing I am wondering is this. If the State of California hired that firm my wife worked for and, like they did for the Catholic diocese, they sent each of us our “bill” for the cost of this project, how would we react? What if they had sent us a proposed bill before the election that would not be due until we passed the proposition to refurbish this old track? Might the vote have turned out differently?
So what is the point? Politics has become impersonal. It is those people in Washington or at the State Capitol. It’s government funding and federal grants. It is distant, too distant to cost me.
That is a lie. The Catholic diocese had it right after all. If you play, you pay. [Or I guess in their case, if you pray, you pay.] Open your wallet and look inside of it carefully before you vote next time. Government is not something that happens far away. It is very personal and hits very close to home after all.
Principle Based Evaluation: The most basic building block of healthy government is self-government. It moves then to family, workplace, local, regional and eventually national government. But the epicenter of effective government should be at the smallest entity practical.
For more information on the author, Gary Cake, go to: http://www.mtwm.org/
Steve Russell
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Bottom up Leadership I like it! 1 Cor. 16:1 says "bring the cash!" This kingdom project is going to be costly. It will require the time, talent and treasure of all concerned to stward the new creation properly. Of the laos, by the laos for the laos. |
Tessa Hart
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Does Money Grow on Trees? I think it's so strange that our government hasn't figured out that you can't spend money you don't have. We vote on things to be done and don't think they will effect us. The things we vote for we pay for. The money may not come directly out of our pockets but it does come from somewhere. "Money doesn't grow on trees". The government builds tons of debt and puts it on the next generation to take care of. Where's the limit? When will there be too much for our nation to handle? If we are already way in over our heads now, think about five to ten years from now. The word I would like to highlight in the portion of scripture Steve Russell used is "properly". Do we know how to steward the new creation properly? We must build our nation wisely. This must start with the indiviual and work up to the whole. Self government will go from: family to workplace to local to regional and finally to national. |
Jefferson D. Clinton
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But God Asks Us to Look to Reason, for he gave it to us A commuter rail will save money over the long run -- fewer cars on the road, less road upkeep, less damage to environment (that God created), and more of an opportunity to meet our neighbors and fellow Christians on the way to work and on the way home to our families. |
Ellen Gilley
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... In response to Mr. Clinton's comment, it may be true that the rail may save us in the long run, however, wouldn't that money be better spent on paying off debts that are building up instead of creating more debt? Once the debt has been paid off, I'm sure that the rail is a good and useful thing to build. Doesn't it say in 1 Corinthians 10, "everything is permissable, but not everything is beneficial." this may be alright to do, but it will have no benefit for the future generations. |
