The Bill of Rights – The Liberal Version Updated

We The People: Tea Party Speech

I finally got around to posting the full text of my July 4^th Tea Party speech in here in Wausau.

I want to thank Pat for that wonderful introduction,  and Meg Ellefson and the Wausau Tea Party for inviting me to speak.  Most of all I want to thank all of you for coming out. Thank you for celebrating the founding of our Great country. Thank you for taking such an interest in its future. 

On this day 233 years ago the Continental Congress adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It concluded by saying,  “for the support of this Declaration,  with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”   With a great deal of effort and sacrifice, and Divine Providence,  they won the Independence we are celebrating today.

Eight-five years later the country was facing its most sever crisis when Lincoln said, “Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history… We – even we here – hold the power and bear the responsibility…  We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”

Today we face a new and different kinds of crisis, yet those words still ring true.  As much as we might like, we cannot escape history.  We cannot abdicate our responsibilities to others.  Major questions before us today are

Will America remain the America created by the founding fathers?

Will it be the America that people for 233 years have fought and died?

Will America be based on Liberty, In God We Trust, and E Pluribus Unum?

Or will it be replaced with a new and so called improved America, based on Equality, Secularism and Multiculturalism?

These are not words of trivial or unimportant differences.  The goals of Liberty and Equality are mutually exclusive. At one time this was well understood, but for many today, it is unknown and a foreign concept. 

So will America be transformed? Will it be transformed into a country with ever-increasing government? A government with an insatiable thirst for taxes? A government that demands more and more of the fruits of your labor to feed it? Where government is so large that is controls most aspects of your life, and where your freedom is increasingly limited; where people are ruled by an elite few, career politicians and judges who think only they have the wisdom, that only they have the knowledge to understand how you should live.

Take, the speaker of the California Assembly, Karen Bass, who said about those who would dare tell a legislator,  “if you increase taxes, we will vote you out.”  Are you ready?  She called them “terrorists”. She went on to say “I don’t know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist.”   Think about the arrogance and sense of privilege that statement implies.   Think about the danger in her words. She is effectively saying, “I don’t know why we allow citizens to demand a say in how government is run.”  

While some money is needed by Government to operate, Madison said, “there is perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominate party to trample on the rules of justice.”

Our founding fathers knew that taxes while necessary are an infringement on liberty. For every dollar taxed by Government is a dollar you are no longer free to spend.  Government, not you will determine how the money is spend.  It is one of the reasons they wanted limited government, It was the reason for the Boston Tea Party.

For almost 150 years the checks and balances worked. The US was a low tax country.  At the start of the twentieth century, Americans had to work about 20 days to pay all their Federal, state, and local taxes for the year.

But then things began to change.   The checks and balances were undermined.  Government began to grow and demand more. People had to work longer to pay for Government leaving less for themselves. By the beginning of the 21^st century people had to work, not 20 days as they did in 1900, or 30, or 50, even 100 days. We passed that in 1966.   By the beginning of the 21^st century government had grown such that we have to work 123 days just to pay for it.    

If anything shows that government is broken, it is this.  It is like a car with the gas pedal stuck.  If government continues to grow as it has over the last 100 years, by 2200 all of an American’s time will be spend working to pay for government.  But this is impossible, the system will collapse long before this.

Yet politicians continue to promise more and more programs, that require even higher taxes. And when they can’t get the money they need from taxes, they borrow it, burdening future generations. 

Times are tough and likely to get worse.  How many of you are having to do with less?  Our Governor says that the state budget just passed. Has the largest cuts in state history. Maybe that is true, but in the end, the state is increasing spending and the taxes to pay for it.

This budget will be spending $3.6 billion more than the last budget.  That is more than a 6% increase.  I don’t know about you, but I call a 6% increase a raise.

In these tough times, you are asked to do with even less. And why?  So that government can have even more.  This is not a partisan attack on the current administration.  It is an sober analysis of the last century.

And taxes are just one small piece of the problem we face.  Government is broken almost everywhere you look.   And yet they want to do even more. 

The house just passed a sweeping Cap and Trade bill.  Do you know what is in it?   If you do you are one of the extreme few.

Despite the president’s promise of open government, to post all legislation online in time for people to read before a vote, the bill was not even available for lawmakers to read. They voted on a legislative blank check. 

How many of you are in the habit of handing out blank checks?  When a representative votes to pass a bill like this when they don’t know what is in it, they are voting for a blank check payable in your liberties.  Any representative so cavalier with your liberty should be voted out at the next election. 

About the only thing everyone can agree on, including the supporters of the bill, is that Cap and Trade will result in higher cost for energy.  How many of you currently think energy costs are too low? How many of you think you should be paying more?  The government estimates that it will only cost you an additional $175 a year. But they are not being completely honest,  for that is only in the initial phase before the all the provisions of the bill kicks in. 

In addition, Government estimates are also notoriously unreliable.  The Heritage foundation estimate that it would be $1800 a year to start and $6800 a year  when fully in force; Oh, but not to worry, it is not really a tax increase. You will just have to pay more money.

Cap and Trade could devastate our economy, which is already in trouble. Because of this an amendment was offer to suspend the bill if gas hit $5.00 a gallon. It was defeated. When an amendment was offer to suspend the bill if electricity cost rose 10% this year, it too was defeated. When an amendment was offer to suspend the bill if unemployment reached 15%, again, it was defeated.  This is not putting people first.

But if this were not enough, Obama now wants to rush through a bill on health care.  Why all the rush on these bills?   Why are they in a hurry? Simple, if you don’t know what is in there, how can you oppose it?  

I could go on and on with example after example.  

Some see this as hopeless, a lost cause.  We have already gone too far. Too much damage has already been done. It is a good thing the founding father did not have such an attitude. America would not have made it through 1776. When the new government was having problems, because the Articles of Confederation proved inadequate, they created the Constitution.  Its first words resounded with the core of what makes this country so great:  We the people.

Notice those words. They are not we the politicians.  We the ruling class.  We the privileged few. We the intellectual elite, or even We the Judges. Despite what some judges may believe, the Constitution does not belong to the Supreme Court, where we must wait for them to divine penumbras, or examine foreign law so they can tell us what it means. It belongs to us.  It is “We the People.” 

In Lincolns words: We – even we here – hold the power and bear the responsibility…

So just what can “We the people” do.   First, you have to become informed.

Read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  It takes just a few minutes to read each. Is your country worth that? 
Learn about what the Founding Fathers did to create this country.
Learn about how our country is supposed to work.
Educate yourselves of the what is happening.

Second you have to become involved.

That you are here demonstrates that you already are.
Learn  to communicate your concerns effectively to others.
This is why the Tea Party movement is so important, but don’t wait to be asked,  ask what you can do.

Finally you have to vote and vote wisely.

Don’t wait till election day and then decide you don’t like any of the candidates.
Get involved much earlier in the process.
Encourage and support candidates early on, so you can enthusiastically vote for them on election day.  

If “We the People” do this then in the words of Lincoln at Gettysburg, “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

 Thank you and God Bless America!

(Note: this is the speech as written,  it was edited during delivery because of a change time limits)

Sharpening Iron: A Review of The Jesus Paradigm

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In his new book.  The Jesus Paradigm.  Dr.  David Alan Black issues a bold challenge to the church.  His fundamental premise is that the Church lost its way around the time it became allied with the Roman Empire following the rise to power of Constantine.  and for the most part has been doing things wrong ever since. 

While the reformation was an important corrective.  it still retained many of the errors.  and thus was still locked into a pattern for the church that was based more on the world’s way of doing things rather than the biblical pattern.  For Dr.  Black.  what was needed was not a reformation but a restoration more in lines with the approach taken by the Anabaptists.  a restoration of the Church back to what it originally was and was meant to be.  A Church not based on the way the world works and views things.  but a church that follows the model found in the Bible.  a church truly centered on the teachings of Jesus.  not just in theology and morality.  but in its organization.  structure.  and practice as well. 

My view of The Jesus Paradigmis best summed up by Proverbs 27:17.  “As iron sharpens iron.  so one man sharpens another.” Calls for change are never easy.  and calls for changes so large as to constitute a paradigm shift are extremely difficult.  Dr.  Black’s challenge is no different.  In fact many will find much they disagree with.  I certainly did.  But the true value in Dr.  Blacks’ book is not the suggestion he makes.  but the effective way he calls.  and even challenges.  the reader to think deeply and seriously about the Church.  its structure.  and its role in both the world and the life of the believer. 

As Dr.  Black writes.  “Churches today have to make a choice to follow contemporary patterns of ecclesiology or use the early church as a model.” (p 40) He believe that the division between church leaders and members is far to stark.  Not only being unscriptural.  Dr.  Black argues that this has resulted in a “responsibility redistribution.”  For example.  the Bible is fairly clear that parents have the responsibility to bring up their children “by training and instructing them about the Lord.” (Eph 6:4 ISV) Yet the current church structure has encouraged parent to abdicate their responsibility turning it over to church leaders to deal with. 

Rather than the current structure that is so common and widespread as to be taken for granted.  Dr.  Black believes that churches should move towards an “every-member ministry” where “most jobs that are currently salaried positions will be filled by volunteer help”(p 2).  and where “new believers will be asked to specify a regular community involvement… in addition to their commitment to a ministry in the church.” (p 3)

Such suggestions are such a stark departure from the norm.  that many might be tempted to reject them out of hand.  But the way Dr.  Black lays out the biblical and historical evidence in support of his position will permit no such kneejerk rejection.  In some respects.  there is nothing new in Dr.  Black’s biblical evidence.  For the most part he simply quotes familiar verses.  But again this is one of the strengths of the book.  for often these verses are so common that we have passed over them without much thought as to what they are really saying. 

For example.  in 1 Thess 5:14 Paul writes “We encourage you.  brothers and sisters.  to admonish the unruly.  comfort the discouraged.  and uphold the weak.”  As Dr.  Black relates.  “I well recall how shocked I was when I first realized that Paul was exhorting.  not leaders.  but the brothers to ‘admonish the unruly.’… Every time Paul wrote to a church in order to deal with its problems.  he never appealed to the leaders.  Instead.  his constant request was for the whole church to deal with its trouble.” (p 70)

Perhaps the weakest part of the book is Dr.  Black’s comments on the relationship between politics and the church.  But this was not because I disagreed with Dr.  Blacks general position that “Christians today must maintain an ultimate commitment to Christ and eschew loyalty to a political party.” In many ways I agree there must be some sort of separation.  even if I do reject the recently developed constitutional concept of a strict separation of church and state.  This is why I do not write about political issues on my consider.org blog. 

Nor is it because I disagreed with some of the political positions he took.  which I do.  Rather it is because he did not remain consistent with his own position.  Thus if I were to attempt to rebut some of the positions he takes.  I would need to do it on my political blog (Hushbeck.com/blog) and not on my Christian blog (consider.org/blog). 

Still.  overall.  while I found much to disagree with in The Jesus Paradigm.  the process of working through the book.  of struggling with and considering the criticism Dr.  Black has concerning the state of the Church.  the corrective measures he suggests.  and most importantly the biblical and historical evidence he lays out.  helped clarify many of my lingering doubts and nagging problems I see in the modern church.  It moved my thinking.  and my understanding forward.  And what more could one ask for in a book other that the Bible?  In short.  it is an important book that should be not only read.  but seriously considered by anyone interested in the state and direction of the modern church.

This is Elgin Hushbeck.  asking you to Consider Christianity: a Faith Based on Fact.

Note: as a matter of full disclosure.  Dr.  Black was my professor of among other things NT Greek.  and The Jesus Paradigm was published by Energion.  which also published my three books.

Should Christians be Different

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In his Christianity Today article “The Scandal of the Public Evangelical” Mark Galli gives a stark challenge to the evangelical movement.  Pointing to the many recent scandals that have involved evangelicals, he writes, “We assume that with sufficient exhortation and moral effort, our sins will become smaller than a widow’s mite and our righteousness larger than life. This is coupled with the long-standing evangelical myth that there should be something different about the Christian. A look. An attitude. A lifestyle.”

I found a number of things troubling about Galli’s argument.  The first was his starting point: the failing of a few public evangelicals, in particular Carrie Prejean, the Gosselins, and  Mark Sanford.

It seems to me that Galli has fallen victim to the celebrity based mentality so prevalent in our media driven culture, a culture that is normally very hostile to evangelicals, at least when they are not just ignoring them.    The sad story of Carrie Prejean, Miss California, demonstrates this very well.  She rockets to fame because she took a mild stance in favor of traditional marriage, and for that she becomes a star for evangelicals, and target for the media.

This brings me to one of Galli’s statements that I believe was exaggerated to the point of being a straw man. This was his claim that “our sins will become smaller than a widow’s mite and our righteousness larger than life.”   Now perhaps that is what he is hearing on Sunday mornings, but it has not been my experience.   In fact, I see almost the opposite; the stress on being just “sinners saved by grace” to the point of downplaying of sin; the increased stress on the praise portion of the service, and the downplaying of the actual study of the Bible; the growing idea among the young that church is a fun activity rather than a serious commitment to God.

But even if that were not the case, Prejean’s is to me more an example of the viciousness of the media than any weakness among evangelicals.  Even if we could all reach perfection in Christ, we would still all have a past, and given enough media animosity, a past that could be exposed.   After all just look how Jesus was attacked, and he was perfect.  So how much more can we, mere sinners, be attacked.

Neither the Gosselins nor Mark Sanford are representative of what I would consider “average” evangelical role models.  They are the “role models” the world chooses for us, but they should not be the role models we as the body of Christ look to.  Our role models are of little interest to the world but can be found in virtually every church should we care to look. They are those who live godly lives of service, with little or no fanfare, but a love for the Lord.

Galli’s argument has at its root an additional flaw.   If we seriously follow Christ I do believe, in Galli’s  words, “that there should be something different about the Christian. A look. An attitude. A lifestyle.”  Following Christ will have an impact on us, how we live, and how we interact with others.    This, in fact can be seen in the decline in things like honesty in the culture as it has moved away from Christianity and embraced a more secular view.

But there is a huge difference between better and perfect.   We are not, and I believe never will be, in this world at least, perfect followers of Christ.  We all still struggle with sin, and will continue do so while we live. But we are also indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and leading a spirit filled life will have a impact on how we live.  It will not make us perfect, but it will, if we seek to follow our Lord, make us better.   And this should be something we have to offer the world.  That so many Christians often resemble the world is, I believe, a failure of the Church.

That said, Galli does make a valid point that this is not the only thing we have to offer the world. It is not even the primary thing we have to offer.   As he points out toward the end of his article, “What we offer the world is not ourselves or our moral example or our spiritual integrity. What we offer the world is our broken lives, saying, ‘We are sinners saved by grace.’ What we offer the world is Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

That is, and always should be our primary message to a world that is lost; the message of Gospel.  The recent public failures should serve only to remind us that the world is hostile to the message of God and will use whatever it can to discredit it. This will not change, nor will Christians in the limelight cease to disappoint us from time to time.   But our goal is not to please a celebrity enthralled culture, it is to reach world with the Gospel, and to serve a risen Lord.

This is Elgin Hushbeck, asking you to Consider Christianity: a Faith Based on Fact.

News Report or Defense of Obama?

Just saw an AP news report,  FACT CHECK: GOP joins spin game over stimulus jobs.  While they mentioned the Republican math as “convoluted” as the White Houses formula, there was no link to a comprable story fact checking the While House.   A quick search for “fact check” found this article but no corresponding article for the White House.    Basically the article is “Repbulicans are correct… But…”

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