by Steve Schmidt, Darby
Rhetoric using labels such as communists, Marxists, socialists, liberals, and conservatives are frivolous, divisive, and a waste of time. Most people cannot even define those terms. We would be better served to dialogue about what we believe should be the proper roles of government. Before we get into promoting specific policies or programs, let’s first try to identify and come to agreement as to what we conceptually want our governments to do. Then, and only then can we have productive discussions about how our governments should respond.
A commonly held agreement as to what governments should do is a powerful motivator for positive changes. It moves us out of the rut our country currently is in. How do we get to that common agreement? We should work to engage on this subject as groups and communities with a mutual goal of trying to understand each other’s perspectives. Let’s talk about it. Let’s list the agreed upon roles of government for all to see.
The range of perspectives about what we want our governments to do is apparently large. Some want a hands-off approach while others expect governments to be actively engaged on many issues. I suspect the result of our dialogues would land us on a common agreement somewhere between those two views.
If we continue on the path we are on, we will continue to talk past each other because we often have different expectations for government. I would like to find that common agreement. I hope you will solicit and participate in these communications. It won’t be easy or always comfortable, but I believe it is essential.
Roger Mitchell says
You didn’t list your opinion on the role of government, which I find suspect. If you are going to lead, you’ve got to get out in front.
My viewpoint is the same as Henry David Thoreau’s: “That government is best which governs least,” and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, — “That government is best which governs not at all,” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the best kind of government which they will have.”
The only reason we do not have such a government is because men, i.e., individual persons, are not prepared to rule themselves, but must rely on others to control them via power, force, and violence.
In Galatians 5: 22-23, we read that the “Fruit of the Spirit is…self control.” Self control. When a person has self-control under the tutelage of the Spirit of God, he (she) does not need government at all. When enough people in a society find this truth to create a massive paradigm shift, government, as we know it, will disappear and peaceful relationships among people will become the law of the land.