Many so-called Christian "conservatives" practice a similar form of this power religion: salvation by legislation and/or political force. Like the Hebrews, in Numbers chapter 14, they believe that the solution to our cultural decline is to "let us select a leader and return to Egypt." (14:5) You know, just get the right guy into office to "legislate" the right laws and everything will be ok! Hasn't worked yet, eh?
Dr. Gary North observes in his book "Moses and Pharoah", available online at http://www.freebooks.com/sidefrm2.htm, that there are basically two kinds of religions: power religion and (biblical) dominon religion. Either you will have individuals and a social theory governed by God's Law or you have individuals and a social theory governed by the "mafia" and coercion. Self-goevernment under the Triune God or coercion under some form of secular humanism: the power religion of man.
Christians have long forgotten to even think in terms of cultural dominon and have long been (willingly) relegated to the cultural "ghetto" of irrelevance. It's easier that way of course, so little responsibility.
Excerpt follows below:
(WND) Editor's note: Candice Jackson's explosive new book, "Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine," tells, like never before, the stories of Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick and others who have suffered from the actions of William Jefferson Clinton.
In this excerpt from chapter eight of the book, Jackson comprehensively covers Broaddrick's story of being raped by Clinton, tells of her own experience being sexually assaulted and explains how she believes American liberalism encourages the forcing of the will on others.
By Candice E. Jackson
http://www.wnd.com/news
Modern liberalism paradoxically aligns itself with force to bring about goals of peace. This intrinsic paradox dooms liberalism's goals of world peace and global equality from the start. The rhetorical aims of leftism actually comport nicely with the message of Jesus Christ and other religious figures. Love your neighbor, care for the widows and orphans among you, make no distinctions between "Jew nor Gentile, male nor female," turn the other cheek, judge not lest ye be judged, and so forth. Imagine how beautiful our world today could be if we had spent the past 2,000 years practicing those lofty principles (regardless of whether every one of us revered Christ as God). As a code of morality, those principles encourage us to treat each other with genuine kindness, respect, and love. We cannot prevent every natural disaster or calamity, but we bear responsibility for creating much of the trauma that fills our modern world by refusing to practice love, tolerance, and kindness.
But Christ spoke to people's hearts; he didn't suggest that his teachings ought to become the law of the land imposed on people by force. In fact, he recognized that such an effort is ultimately futile: you can use force to bully people into changing their acts, but you can't force people to change their innermost desires, intents, thoughts, or feelings. A change in the latter is only possible through an individualized, conscience-driven spiritual process. It cannot be imposed by other people; Christ made this clear when he proclaimed, "Render to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and to God that which is God's." Yet the use of force to try to change people's hearts is precisely what political ideologues have attempted to do throughout history, sometimes out of a raw, inhumane desire for power but often out of good intentions to improve society by forcing people to do the right thing. Many admirable parallels exist between liberalism's central values and those propounded by Jesus Christ. Liberalism's exaltation of equality, fairness, and peace echo St. Paul's exhortation of "faith, hope, and love." The core values espoused by liberalism comprise an ancient set of moral tenets that, whenever they have been practiced, make the world a better place. But here's the harsh reality that makes liberalism a dangerous ideology: politics isn't about morality.
Genuine morality must be voluntary, or it's no longer morality. Forcing you to choose correctly is no moral victory on your part because you had no real choice. And politics is always a discussion about how and when to use force. To pass a law, regulation, tax increase, or program always involves using force or the threat of force to bring it about. If politics is about enforcing morality, the paradox emerges: genuine morality cannot be achieved by force. To liberal ideology, politics is about enforcing values. Therein lies the problem.
The values of leftism fit comfortably within a moral code, but they have no place in a political ideology. Liberalism's morality finds itself inevitably corrupted by association with political force, just as Christ's message has at times found itself corrupted by an unholy alliance between church and state. This is not to say that politics doesn't involve ethics. But there is a crucial distinction between morality and ethics. Every individual person needs a moral code to guide her beliefs and actions, but selection and practice of such a code needs to remain solely the province of her own conscience or else it isn't genuine morality. Every political system needs a code of ethics to guide it, but political ethics differ from personal morality. Personal morality tells us what we should choose; political ethics tell us what we are permitted to choose.
When it comes to political ethics, the rules should be made according to the rights of everyone involved – and each of us possesses identical rights to own and use our own lives and property. That leaves each of us free to apply our own moral precepts to the problems of life and strive to make the world a better place using every nonviolent means at our disposal. No matter how noble the purpose, advocating the initiation of force against our fellow human beings can only perpetuate a culture of violence, dominance, and control, placing a world based on peace, partnership, and cooperation further out of reach. In a person psychologically or emotionally predisposed to mistreat women, attachment to liberal ideology can reinforce misogyny because of liberalism's advocacy of political force as an appropriate way to impose values. The political conviction that your ideology permits you to initiate force against citizens in order to mold their behavior can translate into a personal conviction that you can justifiably initiate force against a woman to wrangle submission from her. It does not require a stretch of the imagination to surmise that Clinton's political convictions instilled in him a belief that he could justifiably initiate force against a woman if she somehow threatened his ability to impose acceptable values on society. Juanita Broaddrick knows in her heart that Bill Clinton found himself capable of using the most egregious display of force possible against a woman. Many who have spoken with Juanita – including this author – believe her. Her credible accusation should leave us all disturbed at the thought that we put a rapist in the White House. Her story should encourage us all to think carefully about the connection between misogyny and liberalism, and whether we really want another Clinton presidency.
