Government Shutdown

American government’s mandate is the good of its citizens. The preamble to our constitution outlines the purposes of our government, among them "to promote the general Welfare.” For Christians, this is also the scriptural mandate of government: to be "a minister of God to you for good" (Romans 13:4). (Which operative idea is much more a "Christian heritage" of America than the lying "history" of David Barton and others who claim our deist "founding fathers" were devout Christians.)

So when our government ceases to function as intended, it harms us all. And each political faction blames the other.

But it couldn't be clearer where the blame truly lies. The faction whose guiding principle is that "government IS the problem," is not invested in the constitutional (and scriptural) purpose of government, doing good toward its citizens. That faction's “good” is rather that government cease functioning: as we now have.

All of Kansas' Congressional delegation (and most of our state government) is of that faction. My own Congresswoman, Lynn Jenkins, approvingly quoted the Reaganite anti-government principle in last year’s campaign; but all her factions espouses it. And it becomes clearer every day that their philosophy of anti-government governance is unworkable, and harms our country.

During Vietnam, I held that view for a few years. It made a lot of sense to me at the time that our government was the source of all America's problems. But my thinking reached a point where I couldn't deceive myself that it was a viable philosophy. I had to admit anarchism was a dead-end principle, and give it up.

When I became a follower of Christ, I also came to understand anarchism as a great spiritual evil, in flat contradiction of scripture's teaching. Accepting scripture's characterization of government as a "minister of God...for good," I could see many examples of human government failing in that God-given mandate: but I could not regard government as essentially evil. Nor could I deceive myself that anarchism's spirit of extreme rebelliousness has any other source than satan, the father of spiritual rebellion.

I'd hope for our country's "general Welfare" that the current anarchist faction disavows its principles. Politicians often do.

But in the meantime, blaming the other faction for government shutdown is de facto acknowledgement that Reaganism's bad principles cause harm...for which Reaganites don’t want the blame. Congresswoman Jenkin’s website, for example, recently claimed she is "fight[ing] to keep the government open:” contrary the evidence of her votes in Congress. But again, she’s hardly alone in that hypocrisy.