Our Immigration/Socialism/Statism Problem (Part 1)

 

So here we are in the probably very early stages of a probably never ending “war on terror” through which the powers of the State will probably perpetually (and quite purposefully) grow and the liberty of the masses will probably perpetually (and quite purposefully) shrink. Paris has just been attacked by a handful of evil people, resulting in a rush to the State for increased safety and security by masses of humanity willing to give up more and more of what freedom, privacy, and liberty they have left. This renewed push deeper into the “loving, secure” arms of the State is hardly just a France thing. It’s a worldwide thing, with Americans as panicked and fearfully prone to manipulation as anyone (though still quite proud of how “free” they are, of course). (See: Problem>Reaction>Solution – Why we will beg to have our freedoms taken away and go to war forever.)

Before diving into America-centric issues here, let’s take a moment to note some details emerging through the French situation as noted in an excellent article by my friend Isaac Botkin. In Fear, Compassion, and Refugees, Isaac highlights how freedoms and liberties once assumed as basic and inviolable to most people of the West are now all up for grabs and reconsideration:

Here’s what that’s looking like in France right now: there are calls to ban French citizens from large gatherings (because terrorists might attack them), calls to ban French citizens from being able to visit monuments and other landmarks (because terrorists might bomb them), calls to ban French citizens from having public wifi (because terrorists might use it to hide), calls to ban French citizens from having encryption software (because terrorists might use it to communicate), and much talk of tighter gun controls (even though terrorists have always used guns that are already illegal).

When people leave God’s laws in the interest of personal protection, they are no longer trusting in God, but the State. And when they give up freedom in the interest of safety, they are creating a tyranny. This, like always, is a bad time to make yet another pragmatic decision.

With these basic truths and consequences of faith in God vs. faith in the State as god noted, we are well served to own up to some hard truths about 2015 America as we strive to make productive application of these principles.

First off, even the vast majority of “conservative Christian” Americans are, in practice, Socialists and Statists. Think: Public Schools, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Disability, Unemployment, etc., etc., etc.

The Socialism-promoting entitlement mentality in America is simply staggering, and it extends to those using some Socialist programs (like Social Security) in ways that they imagine to be above reproach when compared to other Socialist programs (like Food Stamps and the like), imagining that since they were fleeced by liars and thieves in the past, they are now entitled to reap part of the loot taken from those being lied to and fleeced today.

And make no mistake, that’s what a program like Social Security is. It is perpetuated through straight theft and deceit. Any money extorted from anyone in the past in the name of Social Security is money that has been stolen. It is gone. It was taken by thieves and spent. It was not “set aside” for anyone. It was stolen and used by those who stole it through the coercive power of the State. It is vital that those who have been stolen from in this manner in the past not imagine themselves to now be entitled to a piece of the loot taken from those being stolen from today. This is a very hard truth, I know, but there can be no restoration in America until we acknowledge and repent in light of this hard truth.

The pride, arrogance, and hypocrisy of those who feel just fine openly defending the use of their pet Socialist program while decrying “those leaches” who dare use other Socialist programs built by the same liars and thieves for the same mass-enslaving, State-empowering purposes is something that we have to face and deal with. There’s no way around it.

Lest anyone think I’m coming at this from anything remotely resembling a pristine perch of personal purity, please allow me to re-share a few words from last months Kicking the Socialism Habit: Do we love the Lord (and one another) enough to confront and correct our dependence on the State?

“How are we going to repent of sins that we will not even acknowledge?

How are people my age and younger going to escape the inevitable end of this monstrous course of action if it is just allowed to go on and on and on without even serious examination in light of the truth, however painful or hard or embarrassing that that truth may be?

For those thinking I’m angry or just being a big meanie here, please allow me to clarify a few things:

First, while I am indeed angry and repulsed by the system that I am describing, I am far more heartbroken for those who are enmeshed and entangled in its tentacles at every level: rich, poor, and everywhere in-between. I really am. This system has fundamentally contorted and warped the hard work and sound ethics of many; encouraged the sloth, covetousness, and jealously of others; and aimed to wrap us all in one form of State dependence or another.

This system is evil, and since Christians are commanded and equipped to properly hate what Christ hates and love what He loves, I have no qualms about saying that this American Socialistic System of systems is disgusting to me. I pray and work toward its death as God makes me able, and I encourage you to do the same…all in a Spirit of Christ-centered grace, peace, and pursuit of justice.

The people impacted, drug down, and dominated by this System are dear to me. I love them. I want the best for them. Which is why I am writing this now, hoping to at least put some hard truths in a biblical light so that repentance, reformation, and restoration might actually come…so that my children and yours might actually find freedom from the beast that we, our parents, and our grandparents have enabled and encouraged for so very long.

Secondly, I have so much to repent of in this area myself that I dare not imagine for even a second that I come to this topic or discussion with even the slightest little bit of self-attained superiority. I do not.

Until fairly recently, I was unaware of most (if not all) of the harder things that I now share here at Fire Breathing Christian on this subject, so I want you to know that while I do share these hard truths in the hope that they will properly jolt Christians out of the apathetic, lazy, and disengaged approach to life that has come to define American “Christianity”, I do so knowing that I am the “chief of sinners” in this regard and that, apart from the grace of Christ in my life, I would seek every “legal” American Socialism enabled “benefit” I could lay my hands on, and without the slightest hesitation or apprehension.

I have used the unemployment not once, not twice, but three times in my life. I also accessed a program to help cover costs when our own precious little Rosie was born not even three years back. Since then, I’ve been convicted and inspired to test these things in light of Scripture and those tests have made very plain that my using these “legalized” systems of State-enforced theft and wealth redistribution was not only sinful, but also practically destructive on many, many levels (not only to me and my family, but to future generations yet unborn). I have therefore repented of these past actions and, as a part of that repentance, I pledge to never knowingly access any Socialist American “benefit” again. (Yes, even though I am still “paying in” to the various systems in question.)

I type this at a time when my family “qualifies” for all sorts of “benefits” of American Socialism, some of which are quite substantial, as men measure such things. While we are struggling at times to eek by, we do so happily, trusting with complete confidence in the Lord to provide all that we need. However much the American System of systems may try to tempt us with “help” and “assistance”, we know that the Lord will provide all that we truly need in accordance with His Word. There is no perceived “need” that justifies our rejection of His Word as the standard by which we strive by His grace to approach every area of life, certainly including all economic concerns.”

Secondly, with the vast majority of even the most self-described “conservatives” in a direct or indirect state of utter dependence upon the State for sustenance, we find ourselves in a state of open bondage. This economic bondage is the means by which, in America, every profane, vile decree from Washington DC-based courts and elites will be enforced. Ultimately, when push comes to shove, any real threat to yank the precious “benefits” given by the American State to the American people will motivate said people to shut up, get in line, and do as their told when it comes to “legally” protecting porn, “gay marriage”, child sacrifice for convenience, or anything else.

Hopefully these points are helping us to see how all of this fits purposefully together. Hopefully we can see that this welfare program or that Socialist program and the ongoing surrender of freedom of the masses to the State are not isolated matters. They are connected, and intimately so. They are all symptoms of the disease – the religion and worldview – of Statism.

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Our entire controlled, contrived political puppet show is aimed at encouraging us to waste our time, energy, and resources nibbling at the edges and tackling the symptoms of symptoms, distracting us entirely from the root cause of all of these culture killing problems. And that root problem – the one core concept that our precious Pagan Political Right and Pagan Political Left “leaders”, “experts”, and media mouthpieces want us to avoid addressing at all costs – is our open rejection of the Nature of God as revealed in His perfect Word and Law.

This is where another excellent post recently made on the immigration crisis in America is very helpful.

Dr. Joel McDurmon of American Vision in Should we accept the refugees? made note and put a fine point on some of the ways in which our All-American rejection of God on so many levels for so very long is the primary cause for our anxieties and problems related to the recently inflamed issue of immigration:

We may have a problem with refugees, or immigrants in general, coming in and freeloading welfare benefits. It may very well be that a majority of the Syrian refugees are unemployed young men seeking welfare havens throughout the West, including America. But the problem here is not the refugees or even their motivation, but the socialistic docks upon which we provide them to land. We don’t have an immigration problem, we have a socialism problem. Or we could say immigration is a problem only because of our socialism. If we spent as much time and energy slamming and criticizing our socialism and secular humanism as we do Islam, we might get somewhere.

Our long running use of self-serving double-standards as American “Christians” in every area of life and culture seems to have rather dramatically caught up to us, leaving us in a place where the hypocrisy is so thick and obvious that we know better than to even begin to try and apply standards consistently, lest we be quickly forced to admit the obvious, ugly, pathetic reality of our proud, open embrace of rank Socialism and Statism.

McDurmon continues:

We spend our time and virtually all our precious resources in crisis mode against outward symptoms and not against the root causes. We are so self-deceived. We think if we allow a few thousand Muslims into this nation we are going to diminish our culture. What culture? Our Christian culture? You mean the Christian culture that Christians have sat and watched for a century and half slowly erode with progressivism, socialism, public schools, social security, no-fault divorce, abortion, Joel Winfrey and Oprah Osteen? Through radical pietism, premillennial pessimism, rapture escapism, dualistic two-kingdoms withdrawal and “natural law”? You mean the Christian culture that Christians have diminished and eroded already by themselves?

There is nothing about our culture that a relative handful of Muslims is going to destroy that we Christians have not ourselves destroyed already. Who needs Muslims when you’ve got Christians like these?

. . . If they’re coming here as terrorists because of our foreign policy, or if they’re coming for welfare handouts, then they’re coming because we have departed from Christian culture and biblical law. When we loathe them, we are loathing ourselves, for it is socialism and military intervention we are protecting.

If we want to have a Christian culture, then follow biblical law. No more military intervention without a clearly just cause. No more standing armies in 100+ countries. No more socialism permeating a hundred aspects of our daily lives without a peep from most Christians.

Or we can just keep on keepin’ on, just as the American State wants us to.

We can just keep right on basing our everything on fear of this man, that man, and those men over there, rather than on a life- and culture-enabling fear of the Lord. (See: The Fear-Driven Voting of America’s “Conservative Christians”)

There’s much more to consider on these subjects, but with this post running a bit long I will pause here, thank you for your prayerful consideration of these things, and leave you with encouragement to trust that God really has provided us with all that we need to navigate each and every one of these issues.

His Nature as revealed in His Word really is sufficient for “every good work” in every realm of His creation (see: 2 Timothy 3:16-17).