Personal Responsibility

painting is by Jon McNaughtona a political artist check out more awesome paintings at www.mcnaughtonart.com

I think this picture expresses my feelings towards government and what it is doing to the church and American citizens and our responsibility to wake up and free ourselves

There is many epidemics going on in our country today. One that I have seen recently and I have to deal with day to day is how many Americans including Christians do not want to take personal responsibility.

The reason our government has grown to such an ridiculous size is because we begged and pleaded for them to take the responsibility and give us guaranteed retirement, food stamps, unemployment, healthcare, feed the homeless, security, filters for the internet, and go kill the bad guys in foreign policy.

Many people including christians that I have talked to have expressed that they don't vote. They don't get involved in politics. I know of one pastor who has stated that he hasn't voted in many years and it is the best time of his life and he encourages others to do the same. He stated he hasn't felt hate since he stopped voting.

Now this is a free country and anyone can choose to vote or not vote, but to publicly be proud of the fact that you haven't voted is just crazy to me. That would be like me saying,

“Hey guys I haven't had a job for 3 years and I'm living off of your hard work by getting unemployment. I've been partying and taking no responsibility. It's great you should try it!”

When we as Americans do not take the opportunity to influence those around us and influence who is elected we have no one to blame, but ourselves every time the government does something we don't approve of.

As a christians I believe God calls us to use our talents and our sphere of influence to show the love of God and to show that we care about what happens to people. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but the governments decisions impact lots of people. They can oppress people, steal from people, kill people, degrade people, and take away our rights religion, free speech, guns, etc. If christians don't speak out literally and in voting against abortion and big government who will?

Now voting is really a very small realm of influence, some would say not important. I dare say it can be extremely important, but not because of the vote. It is important because it give people the opportunity to share how they see the would to others in discussions at work, church, or play. When people discuss politics it isn't really about “politics,” it is about their values, their morals, their worldview. Especially as christians or people of faith how can we just not have a part in that discussion? I guess for some it is uncomfortable, hard, scary. I would challenge those of you who don't talk much about your values when it comes to politics to know where you stand and why. Based on your faith, your life, your morals, your knowledge, and wisdom. You may just impact someone with your love for people and your values. It's simple just hard.

As christians in a church we also have another area where we need to step up (church as a whole). We allow the government to take over our responsibility and areas of influence and many times stand idly by.

I heard a story once about a church in England I believe (not sure about the place) who asked their community, which was a rough community, what the number one thing they would want to change about their community. The people stated they would want the trash picked up in the street. With all the drugs, prostitutes, etc going on they were just worried about the trash. So the church started walking all together and picking up the trash. It changed the neighborhood so much and became so widely known that the government stepped in and started cleaning the street so the church would have to. The church compelled the government to act. Now that is where the story stopped for me, but I'd love to know if the church said, “go somewhere else we got this.” “We don't need you here go where you are needed.” Or did the church allow the government to take over their responsibility.

That is what has happened to our American church today. Instead of going to church to get help with food, or at the loss of a job, we go to the government. The government has become Americans benevolent church. They are able to do this how? At gunpoint. They take taxes from individuals and then bless those that they deem needy. Then the church goes to the pope of America (IRS) and says please, please let me tax exempt. I'm helping you, I'm on your team. The church has lost it's influence because we handed it over to the government in the form of non profit status. It is now being used to tell churches to pay for contraceptives and possibly abortions. It has been used to threaten pastors not to speak out about how the Bible says homosexuality is wrong. What's next? We have to say Jews are inferior?

Americans and especially christians need to take responsibility and give Caesar what is Caesars and take away the teeth from the government by trying to get away from being non profit. It will kill or worse distort many American churches if we let it.

Now other than voting there is many ways as Americans we can take responsibility in our lives. I believe responsibility is like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it is and the better you are with it. I will share a few ways I have tried to take more responsibility rather than relying on someone else or especially the government.

1. Inform yourself. Don't rely on college, Republicans, Democrats, or for heavens sake public school to teach you how the world operates and what is right and wrong. History looks really different through public school. Presidents and issues look way different without the distortion of media and government involved in them (like President Lincoln whole other post)
2. Try and cure yourself with your own treatments for a day or two before going to the doctor. I haven't been to the doctor for anything in over 5 years when I use to go at minimum monthly and weekly a lot of times. Treat your children with natural remedies for one day before heading to the doctor. I've had to cancel every appointment for my son when I do that.
3. Don't trust the government to tell you what is safe to eat. The USDA doesn't inform you of whether the meat is disease free just that it meets all their packaging guidelines. Try to eat local if possible (I am having a hard time with this one) or just inform yourself of what you are eating. If may change the way you think and live.
4. Don't take anything from the government if you don't need it. Sometimes we need help and that is what food stamps and unemployment are for, but don't abuse it. Remember that is your money that is going into that fund if you wouldn't want someone else to take your money if the situation was reversed try and avoid it.
5. Be an example in your own life. We preach that the government needs to get out of debt and quit operating in a deficit, but are we in our own lives? We cry about the government not being honest or transparent, but are we?
6. Don't go to college before you know what you want to be when you grow up. Relying on Universities and other colleges to inform you about the real world can give you a skewed reality. I think it is very hard on children to go straight from high school to college and make a decision that will affect the rest of their life when they've never even paid a mortgage or rent payment. Things change a lot about yourself from 18 to even your early 20's. Universities are far to willing to shape how a 18 year old think with government funded grants, scholarships, and building funds. Someone who doesn't know what they believe in why will be told what to believe and rarely why.
7. Try growing your own food share with your kids and friends where food really comes from. One day Wal-Mart may not be there. What will we do then?
8. Vote and more importantly know what you believe and why. Be ready to share why you believe what you believe. Always be ready to change your opinion based on new information. We don't know everything and should always be making sure our opinions are solid and our morals firm.
9. Encourage others who are stepping out of their comfort zones and taking on personal responsibility. It is a rough journey with many critics.

As Americans we need to take responsibility where we can. Vote and share what our values and principles are. If we don't take responsibility we are giving up our influence to the government and I think we have seen where that takes us.

The Bantam Voice

“Freed People Free People”