Replies

“I think what has developed over the years with the increasing power grabs by non elected federal officials is closer to a dictatorship of beauracrats(sp)than a constitutional republic.”

Once we started down this path through liberalism it will never be turned around,it’s too late

Christopher Dawson wrote the following that Bishop Sheen wrote in his book Communism and the Conscience of the West.

“As Liberalism did not create moral ideals, so, too, it cannot preserve them. It lives on the spiritual capital that it has inherited from Christian civilization, and as this is exhausted something else must take its place. Once society is launched on the path of secularization it cannot stop in the halfway house of Liberalism, it must go on to the bitter end, whether that end is Communism or some alternative type of totalitarian secularism”. Christopher Dawson, Religion and the Modern State

I agree it is the best form.

You have no idea how thrilled I am to hear you say that.

But I have to be honest and say I think what has developed over the years with the increasing power grabs by non elected federal officials is closer to a dictatorship of beauracrats(sp)than a constitutional republic.

You'll get no argument from me.

How best to limit the power grabs that weaken the republic is a question I do ponder.

Voris made one suggestion as an alternative to monarchy, that I happen to agree with. For the sake of illustration, I'm going to change one word twice in his quote, and then I'm going to follow his quote with a pair of mine. I don't think you'll disagree with the idea, at least on principle:

"Well, we can either discuss changing the system completely, which would be monumental because there is no clear path to do that, or we can talk about fixing the current system, which means making at least a majority of the population realize the value of virtue. That is also a monumental task, but there is a slightly more clear path to that. It's called evangelization, and the only way that's going to happen is if ~~Catholics~~ Christians, virtuous ~~Catholics~~ Christians, get out there and start making it happen.

============================

I think there's a reason why we didn't make a difference in the overall vote, like we (supposedly) did in 2000 and 2004. Year-by-year census numbers show that the number of believing, practicing Christians in this country has been steadily declining for decades. I think we have finally shrunk to the level where we've lost any influence over the culture, morality, or politics at large. IMO that's what the 2008 vote demographics are saying.
We can't influence the ballot box, until we start changing the hearts and minds of the unbelievers among us. We'll remain a statistical oddity, "strangers in a foreign land" (Exodus 2:22, cf Jeremiah 5:19), until we increase our numbers (and I don't mean simply filling seats in the pews). We Protestants and Evangelicals need to take the Great Commission and all Ten Commandments seriously again.
-- Alex Murphy, November 7 2008

IMO the answer begins with creating a (counter-)culture for ourselves. The Christians in the first century had their own courts, their own "welfare system", their own traditions and customs. When Rome collapsed, the Christians didn't go with it because they were capable of governing themselves (and others). They'd already learned not to look to the State to meet their needs.
Your "7-day-a-week" comment ["The challenge is to convert the "Sunday go to meeting Christians" into "7 day a week Christians", as well as evangelize the unsaved"] is a start to doing this. Christians need to rediscover the idea that Jesus Christ is Lord over all of His creation, including politics and government. There is no "neutral area" that the Gospel does not apply to. I'm not talking about ecclesiocracy here. I'm talking about families and businesses and governments being subject to Christ's rule, not subject to a church's rule. There should be a common Lord and a common ethic shared between them all. This country was created and settled by Protestants who held similar ideas. If we want to take our country back from the liberals and the Godless who are turning it into a Nanny Police State, then we Christians better get educated on where that "back" is. Otherwise, we'll just go off in another direction again.
-- Alex Murphy, November 9, 2008