Laws, Morals, & The Constitution

As we head into this election season I'd like to discuss a realization that I've been noticing more and more: As time goes on the size of our government increases. And as the size of our government increases, the character of our citizenship decreases. What is the cause of this? After much pondering I realized that I was looking at this issue backwards. The decreasing character of our citizenry is not caused by the increasing size of government, rather the inflation of government is in response to the systematic shedding of character by the average American!

This proper view of our national situation makes complete logical sense: When people can control themselves, external control is unnecessary. When people cease to exercise self-control the governing forces must increase in order to exert enough external force to bring about the appearance of "self-control" in its citizens.

The next logical question must therefore be: What has caused the erosion of character in our nation? I believe this is two-fold.

First, we no longer encourage people to believe in an absolute morality. Earlier in our country's history our government worked to frame laws that reflected our morality. Now, we base morality on the laws our country passes! We no longer uphold a morality against which our laws can be judged. Rather, people judge morality as compared to our laws! This has been exposed most recently when Piers Morgan said to Kirk Cameron regarding gay marriage, "And yet, some people would say that telling kids that being gay is a sin, or getting married is a sin or whatever – that in itself is incredibly destructive and damaging, in a country where seven states now have legalized it." Piers is questioning Kirk's standard of morality as compared to the laws of seven states! The law supersedes, or, perhaps more accurately, dictates morality. With laws that can vacillate from administration to administration, who can determine what is moral and what is not?

Second: We have forgotten the foundation on which this country was constructed. Regardless of their personal beliefs, whether they were deists, Christians, or simply savvy politicians, the founding fathers saw the wisdom in basing their designs for a new country on the blue print of Judeo-Christian values. James Madison wrote, "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We've staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God with all of our heart." Once again, we find the urging for self-discipline which leads to a smaller government. With or without a personal belief in these values I do not understand why the majority of politicians do not strongly recommend living by these tenets. They encourage obedience, submission, volunteerism, compassion, and prayerful support of the government provided it does not contradict the law of God. What politician wouldn't want a multitude of citizens striving to uphold these virtues?

One final proof that our founding fathers believed that a society based on Judeo-Christian morals was best for all can be found in the preamble of the Constitution. This brief segment of the most important document of our government declares that two of the purposes of the government are to "provide for the common defense," and "promote the general Welfare." The wording here is intentional and not accidental. The government is not called to provide for the general welfare of its citizens. It is to provide defense. I mention both purposes as a juxtaposition to show that the mandate for our lawmakers is to promote the general welfare, not provide it. The mandate is to create an environment that encourages both micro and macro charity, enables churches and other religious institutions to provide care for the needy, helps corporations create job placement services, encourages restaurants to have soup kitchens to feed the hungry, etc, etc, etc. The forefathers were not looking to create a government that would provide these services. This just encourages people to ignore their destitute neighbor. "Don't worry about them, the government will take care of them."

The rebelliousness of human nature and the blindness of our so-called leaders to these society-building beliefs has caused what we are dealing with today: the steady and disturbing decline of individual and corporate character in our nation. In response, the continual bloating of the government in a vain attempt to create an external force designed to cause self-control which, in turn, leads to the disintegration of our civil liberties. And while the obese government may be able to prevent chaos, it is not able to compel it's citizens to care for each other and therefore, must also assume the role of provider of the general welfare.

Is there nothing that can save us from this perpetual downward spiral?